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MEMOIR 



OF 



COLONEL HENRY LEE 



i 




CyO'(.'^.^^A^ /V-<_-<^ 



Henry Lee 



MEMOIR OF 
COLONEL HENRY LEE 

WITH SELECTIONS FROM 
HIS WRITINGS AND SPEECHES 



PRErARED BY 

JOHN T. MORSE, Jr. 



BOSTON 
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

1905 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

NOV 27 1905 

CoDyriftif Entry 
CLASS a. XXc^ No, 

/3JLd 6 9 

COPY B. 



L4^ 



Copyright, 1905, 
By Elizabeth P. Shattdck. 

All rights reserved 



Published November, 1905 



THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. 



TO 

ELIZABETH P. SHATTUCK 

IN RECOGNITION OF HER 

ENERGY, PATIKNCE, AND VALUABLE ASSI8TANCB 

IN THE PREPARATION OF 

THIS MEMOIR OF HER FATHER 

IT IS 

DEDICATED 



CONTENTS 



CHAFTEB PAGE 

I. His Youth 3 

II. Matters Theatrical: Family Relations ... 21 

III. During the Civil War 53 

IV. Interest in Public Affairs • 91 

V. Harvard University 122 

VI. Personal Traits; Literary Labors 151 

VII. Attitude towards Religion — Sundry Occupa- 
tions — Death 198 

SELECTIONS FROM WRITINGS AND SPEECHES 

Personal Reminiscences of Governor Andrew . . . 227 

Speech on the State House: 1895 262 

The Old North End 273 

Broad Street Riot 287 

The Shaw Memorial 291 

Frances Anne Kemble 295 

OBITUARIES 

Major Charles J. Mills 329 

Brigadier-General Thomas G. Stevenson 331 

G. HowLAND Suaw 333 

Sarah Alden [Mrs. Samuel] Ripley 335 

William H. Logan 338 



viii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Francis Cabot Lowell 340 

M AUXIN L. WnixcnER 344 

Mrs. George Ticknor 345 

George Higginson 348 

John Giijbs Gilbert 352 

Henry J. Bigelow 357 

George Partridge Bradford 363 

Charles Devens 366 

Patrick Tracy Jackson 371 

George Cheyne Shattuck 373 

Waldo Higginson 375 

Robert C. Winthrop 384 

Oliver Wendell Holmes 389 

William Minot 394 

Benjamin Eddy Morse 397 

Ebenezkr Rockwood Hoar 399 

William Story Bullard 407 

Theodore Lyman 410 

Sarah Paine Cleveland 413 

Martin Brimmer 418 

Speech on Death of Mr. Wm. Perkins 420 

INDEX 427 



ILLUSTRATIO:^rS 

Henry Lee Frontispiece 

The "Boylston House," Brookline, owned by 

Colonel Lee's father and himself .... Page 90 

The "Boylston House," east end " 124 

Colonel Lee's headland at Beverly Farms ... " 192 

Colonel Lee's house at Beverly Farms .... " 196 

Henry Lee " 216 

House built and occupied by Colonel Lee, at 

Brookline "260 

The Samuel Cabot house, Brookline, the last 

house occupied by Colonel Lee .... " 326 ^ 

In the garden of the Samuel Cabot house at 

Brookline " 370 



MEMOIR 



MEMOIR 

OF 

COLONEL HENRY LEE 

CHAPTER I 

HIS YOUTH: BUSINESS 

EvEEYONE who knew Colonel Henry Lee feels that his 
memory should not lapse into oblivion for lack of an 
enduring record of what he was and what he did. But 
not less must it be felt that an adequate record became 
an impossibility when he died without having himself 
written that which, under his hand, could not have failed 
to be a charming volume of reminiscence. Anyone 
else, undertaking the task, must be painfully discour- 
aged at the thought of how immeasurably better Colonel 
Lee would have done it. Yet the effort ought to be 
made ; some one must move halting along over the road 
which he would have traversed with such a lively and 
spirited quickstep. 

It is a common delusion that every character can be 
accounted for by reciting the names and occupations, 
the births and deaths of a parcel of deceased ancestors, 
not widely different from the average of their coevals 
who were also at the same time being the ancestors of 
somebody. The genealogical paragraphs with which 



4 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

we have to do can be best given by adopting Mr. Lee's 
own memoranda. He says that he numbers among his 
direct ancestors Governors Thomas Dudley and Simon 
Bradstreet, Major-General Daniel Goodwin, Major 
Thomas Savage, whose wife was Faith Hutchinson, " a 
daughter of the famous Anne Hutchinson." There 
were also the " Reverends John Cotton, Francis Higgin- 
son, Flynt, Symmes, besides Tyngs, Lakes, Quincys, 
Pickerings, Ameses, Tracys, Jacksons, and Cabots." 
" The family line includes no less than nine clergymen 
prominent in Colonial times." Colonel Lee was wont 
to say that he was prouder of the blood of Anne Hutch- 
inson than of that of the Governors. Certainly she and 
the military men contributed the most obvious traits in 
his character. 

"The Christian name of Mr. Lee's first ancestor in 
this country is somewhat in doubt, as is also the date of 
his arrival. His wife's name was Martha Mellowes. 
His son lies buried in his tomb on Copp's Hill, and his 
obituary is worth quoting : ' July 21, 1766. — Yesterday 
morning died Mr. Thomas Lee, in the 94th year of his 
age, who in the early and active part of life carried on 
considerable Trade in this Town, though he deserves 
to be recorded rather for the unblemished Integrity of 
his Dealings, and the exact Punctuality of his Pay- 
ments, than for the extent of his Trade, or the length 
of his life.' " 

Thomas Lee, born December 17, 1702, graduated at 
Harvard College in 1722; he was bred a merchant; lived 
in Salem ; was for several years a Representative to the 
General Court; married first Elizabeth Charnock, and 



HIS YOUTH 6 

on December 29, 1737, as his second wife, Lois Orne. 
His son Joseph was born in Salem, May 22, 1744; 
became a sea-captain ; " had a great talent for mechanics, 
especially for ship-building; a numerous fleet, designed 
by him, was sent out as privateers during the war of 
the Revolution, and was afterwards engaged in trade 
with Europe and the East and West Indies. . . . He, 
with the Messrs. Cabot, whose only sister, Elizabeth, 
he married, removed to Beverly, and after a term of sea 
service, carried on an extensive business for many years 
with his distinguished brother-in-law, the Honorable 
George Cabot, who, as junior, had served him through 
all the grades from cabin-boy to partner." 

Henry Lee, ninth child of Joseph Lee, was born in 
Beverly, February 4, 1782. He became " a prominent 
East India merchant," and was "in Calcutta at the War 
of 1812, and forced to remain until peace was concluded 
in 1815. In the prime of life Mr. Lee was well known 
as a writer on financial topics, as he had command of a 
large amount of statistical knowledge, and was a valued 
correspondent of the Anti-Corn-Law League. He was 
the unsuccessful rival of Honorable Nathan Appleton 
as candidate for Congress from Boston, in 1850, upon 
the tariff and free trade issues. He was a firm believer 
in free trade, and wrote the famous ' Boston Report ' 
of 1827 against a further increase of tariff duties. It 
was his fortune in 1832 to receive the electoral vote of 
South Carolina for Vice-President of the United States, 
on a ticket with John Floyd. ^ Mr. Lee married Miss 

^ This was by reason of his free-trade or low-tariff views. 



6 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Mary Jackson, daughter of Honorable Jonathan Jack- 
son, June 16, 1809, by whom he had six children. 
He died February 8, 1867, having just completed his 
eighty-fifth year." 

Of this Henry Lee and Mary, his wife, the third 
child was Henry Lee, the subject of this Memoir. Here 
again we may quote Colonel Lee, for, having been often 
entreated to the autobiographic task, he at last began in 
a vague, indeterminate way to cherish the purpose ; and 
among his fragmentary manuscripts, written in his old 
age, occur these: 

"RANDOM REMINISCENCES OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 

and in his brain, — 
Which is as dry as the remainder bisket 
After a voyage, — he hath strange places cramm'd 
With observation, the which he vents 
In mangled forms : — 

" Long ago, in my College days, there was a hermit 
in Cambridge. Early in life he had been crossed in 
love and revenged himself on the cruel fair and upon 
the world by complete seclusion. Great was the curi- 
osity of the neighbors, great was their sympathy with 
this forlorn mourner; they gazed at his window in 
passing and pictured to themselves a hero of romance. 
Alas ! one fatal day, this interesting hermit, wearied of 
solitude, of ' chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy,' 
roused by a fire or some other catastrophe, emerged 
from his hermitage, and so refreshed was he by the ex- 
periment that he tarried among his fellow-men, degen- 
erating day by day from a hero of romance to a village 
bore and tatler. 



HIS YOUTH 7 

" ' Have you written these recollections down ? You 
really ought to write them down, otherwise when you 
are gone they will be lost.' These warnings, these 
exhortations have been so many times repeated, as well 
as solicitations from literary caterers, that I have rashly 
and, I fear, unwisely engaged to gather and present some 
of my recollections, which may prove stale, flat, and 
unprofitable. 

" I was born in a house on the southeast corner of 
Columbia Street fronting on Essex Street, the 2nd of 
September, 1817. The tenant who had occupied this 
house and from whom my father had it, had left it in a 
very dirty condition, and my mother, the most scrupulous 
of housekeepers, had to superintend its purification, and 
she always insisted that the pre-natal influence of her 
devotion to the Augean task was unfavorable to my 
character, making me, as she expressed it, too much of a 
quiddle, more nice than wise. I have been handicapped 
all my life by this unfortunate pre-natal influence. 

" Many persons of social position and importance then 
lived in this street and its neighborhood. Almost 
directly opposite to us dwelt Gilbert Stuart, the great 
portrait-painter of the period, in a brick house which had 
one peculiarity in common with but three other houses 
in Boston, — a vaulted doorway, or doorway in a niche. 
The three others of this peculiar fashion, now passed 
away, were Judge Jackson's house in Bedford Place, 
Otis Everett's on Washington Street, corner of Oak, and 
]\Ir. White's on the other side of Washington Street just 
beyond Castle Street. 



8 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" My first personal reminiscences are of my life in a 
delightful semi-rural house in Common Street, where the 
portico of the Tremont House afterward stood. It was 
a two-story wooden house, a few feet back from the 
street, with a rear yard paved with parti-colored pebbles, 
behind which was a garden ascended by two or three 
steps under an arch. I recollect, while living in that 
house when a child of about three years, being carried 
into King's Chapel in the arms of our servant, Daniel 
Webster, — and, by the way, his manly heart ached at 
the degradation of carrjdng me about. It must have 
been a Christmas or an Easter service. The beautiful 
old church, the warden's pew, the bust of Vassall, the 
several mural monuments which embellished its interior, 
made an impression on me which was never lost. An- 
other recollection is of being held up in the front porch 
when a military procession passed by, — the funeral of 
General Porter or Miller, I do not remember which, — 
and of hearing the salute fired over the grave in King's 
Chapel Burying Ground. These are further instances 
of my great attraction by externals, — the architectural 
beauties of King's Chapel, and the military pageant at 
the funeral of this old oificer." 

The " Random Reminiscences " stop short at this early 
point of infancy ; if continued upon the scale adopted, 
they could hardly have come down very near to the 
present day. 

Perhaps indiscretion is the best characteristic of the 
biographer, and therefore one of the most daring things 
that even Mr. Lee ever said may be repeated, " The 
Jacksons," he remarked, " came up from Newburyport 



HIS YOUTH 9 

to Boston, social and kindly people, inclined to make 
acquaintances and mingle with the world pleasantly. 
But they got some Cabot wives, who shut them up. The 
fact is that the Cabots had been the ' best people ' in 
Beverly ; but they were a little doubtful whether they 
would be properly received in the larger town, so they 
kept in seclusion ; the Jacksons had no such anxieties, 
but were ruled by their wives." In fact, Lees, Cabots, 
Jacksons and Higginsons knew each other well in Essex 
County, and had a satisfying belief that New England 
morality and intellectuality had produced nothing better 
than they were ; so they very contentedly made a little 
clique by themselves, and intermarried very much, with 
a sure and cheerful faith that in such alliances there 
could be no blunder. 

Evolved from such a well-assorted lot of local types, 
born and bred amid the influences thus created and 
maintained, one would say of Colonel Lee : " A typical 
New Englander, of course." An erroneous label, how- 
ever, for he was not typical ; the process of composite 
photography does not present his portrait, and his charm 
lay in his individuality. A list of affirmatives and nega- 
tives may sum up the character of the average man as so 
many plus and minus quantities produce a definite result 
in mathematics. But not so in Mr. Lee's case. To those 
who did not know him he cannot be so described as to 
present a life-like picture ; for those who did know him, 
no portrait can be satisfactory; words cannot do the 
work ; we look back upon him through the atmosphere 
of the imagination, for he was a man of striking, singular 
and picturesque traits, and we smile with pleasure as we 



10 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HEXRY LEE 

call up the memory of the shrewd, witty, impulsive, 
kindly gentleman, whose own rare gift of language would 
alone depict himself. 

Of his youth nothing noteworthy is to be said. He 
kept, for a while, a Diary which gives with simple boy- 
ishness one or two good sketches of student life in his 
dav. There is a description of a clash, which seemed to 
him nothing out of the ordinary, that is entertaining : 

" It is not a pleasant day, misty and rainy at inter- 
vals ; the sun has peeped out once or twice this morning, 
but it was only for a minute. Been to recitation to-day; 
recited very well, as I thought. After dinner Pinckney 
came over here ; I lent him an half a dollar. Went to 
confectioner's this afternoon. Spent .01/4 in refreshing 
m^^self. While at prayers I heard that there had been a 
combat between the carpenters, who were working upon 
the church, and the students, and that there would prob- 
ably be another in the course of the evening. Went out 
after prayers, expecting one every minute ; for a num- 
ber of students, who had been struck during the after- 
noon, with their friends, went behind tlie meeting-house, 
and endeavored, as I thought, to pick a quarrel w^ith 
the carpenters; I waited a good while, and at last it 
began. I will speak of nothing but what I saw and heard 
myself, because accounts are so various that one cannot 
tell what to believe and what not to. In the first of it, I 
was standing in the graveyard and all at once I saw the 
carpenters all run to the end of the building, and heard 
some one of them cry out : ' Take care there, take care 1 
Don't let him kill that man.' Then I ran with the rest 
to the end of the building, where the fight was going 



HIS YOUTH 11 

on, and just then they all of them began to cry, ' Har- 
vard ! Harvard ! ' The first person I saw was Webster; 
he had been sick for two or three days, and I never 
in the course of my life saw a person look so pale and 
ghastly; he was standing up fighting, I believe, like a 
lion. The next person was Rutledge, he was fighting 
well, swinging round and driving his fists into his an- 
tagonist's face ; the next moment I saw him thrown 
upon the ground senseless, without seeing how it was 
done ; however, since then I have found out that he was 
struck from behind with a joist upon his head. I ran 
up to see if he was very much hurt, and I saw Earle of 
our class with one side of his face entirely covered with 
blood ; he looked horribly, the blood was running down 
his neck and upon the bosom of his shirt ; Wyman and 
another student were trying to get him away, but he had 
become raving mad and declared he would not go ; I 
then saw Rutledge carried off by some other students, 
and at last they persuaded Earle to go too; I then 
turned round and saw Lawrence driving a fellow round 
in great style, and afterwards Pendleton, boxing in the 
most scientific manner, knocking men down by the 
dozens, and at last fighting with Wheeler, a great cham- 
pion among the townsmen ; but he got beaten by Pen- 
dleton, and they were fighting when President Josiah 
Quincy came up and stopped it immediately. ... It is 
now half-past eleven, and I think I must go to bed. I 
shall continue this to-morrow. 

" Friday. — Ma}'" 31. After the President had stopped 
the fighting and begged the scholars to go to their 
rooms, they dispersed for a few minutes only, after 



12 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

which they came back and stood round the college 
rooms wishing, some of them, to fight again, and some, 
not to. While I was standing there, I saw Labranche 
going with Dr. Higginson to Earle's room ; the scholars 
stayed round college until about 10 or 11 o'clock, when 
they most of them dispersed. President Quincy and 
one or two of the Faculty kept watch nearly, or quite, 
all night. I believe that I have omitted nothing of any 
importance which I saw of this fight, and that this is 
all." 

It further became his fortune to be concerned in a 
memorable occurrence. Those were the days of College 
Rebellions, of which the most famous, prior to Mr. Lee's 
entering College, had been that of 1819, celebrated by 
the historic poem of the " Rebelliad," a " most happy 
production of humorous taste," written by Augustus 
Pierce, of the Class of 1820. But the outbreak of 1819 
was surpassed by that of 1834, " the most remarkable 
one which the College has ever seen," " a matter of pub- 
lic notoriety and of general interest," and which was, 
indeed, in the history of the College almost what the 
Civil War was in the history of the country. Precipi- 
tated by the act of a Southerner, it endured for three 
months, was finally closed by the victory of the consti- 
tuted authorities, but left a bitter sense of wrong in the 
memories of the students. Colonel Lee remained alto- 
gether " unreconstructed " to the end of his days, and 
always declared that he did not repent his part in that 
singular and obstinate conflict. The following memo- 
randum is among his papers : 

" In the year 1875, at the solicitation of the editors 



HIS YOUTH 13 

of the Harvard Book, I wrote an article on University 
Hall, in which I gave an account of the Rebellion of 
1834. At the dictation of some unknown censor this 
most important and interesting item in my sketch was 
stricken out, which so aroused my indignation that I 
declined to have my garbled contribution published. 
But the entreaties of the editors prevailed and I re- 
luctantly consented. Now that sixty-four years have 
come and gone, now, if ever, it is time to publish the 
true history of the Rebellion of 1834." Some pas- 
sages of the paper, which the censors of the "Harvard 
Book " unfortunately lacked nerve to publish, give the 
narrative : 

" Dr. Barber, the teacher of elocution, had a step-son, 
Dunkin, a puny youth, born and bred in England, of 
very national modes of speech and thought, then more 
offensive because more strange than now. Immediately 
after quitting Harvard, this beardless young English- 
man, bright, but insufferably conceited and totally with- 
out tact and experience, was appointed Greek tutor, and 
surely a more unwise appointment could not have been 
made. Hence the Rebellion of 1834. 

'Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.' 

" One day, in recitation, the teasing interruptions of 
this greenhorn teacher so exasperated a Freshman of 
very mature age, much older than his tutor, that he 
refused to recite. The President interfered and the 
student resumed his place ; but, being passed over, he 
at last requested to leave the College, not wishing to 
create a disturbance and not willing to submit to what 



14 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

he deemed unjust treatment from Dunkin. His class 
espoused his cause, the other classes sympathized, meet- 
ings of all the undergraduates were held at University 
Hall, and committees appointed to confer with the 
Faculty. Lawless outbreaks took place which might 
have been averted by tact, common sense, and decent 
candor on the part of the immediate government, till 
one morning the Sophomores marched in procession to 
prayers, entering the chapel at the north door, crossing 
to their seats on the south side, and conducting them- 
selves riotously. The class was dismissed sine die, with 
the exception of two members, who refused to join the 
procession, and one who, contrary to rules and regula- 
tions, was off on a shooting expedition. As soon as the 
sentence was promulgated, the Sophomores raised the 
black flag on Rebellion tree, drank, sang and danced 
till they could dance no more, and then drove off 
triumphantly in wagons to Boston to swelter through 
the summer months over their Logic and Rhetoric, 
Mathematics and Greek Tragedies. 

" ' Occasions shake the tree, they never form the fruit,' 
and the primary cause of this trouble, which pretty much 
destroyed one class, decimated two more, and deprived 
many of the best scholars of the graduating class of their 
degrees, for their remonstrance against injustice, was the 
scandalous appointment of an absurd tutor ; and the 
secondary cause was the vacillating, uncharitable and 
inconsistent action of the President and liis coun- 
sellors. ..." 

It was by reason of this wholesale expulsion that the 



HIS YOUTH 15 

Class of 1836 graduated only thirty-nine members, a 
number much smaller than was then customary. 

Later, in his senior year, Mr. Lee amused himself by 
screwing a tutor into his room, for which prank he was 
again " rusticated " at Reverend Mr. Ripley's, Waltham, 
" where Emerson, Dr. Convers Francis and he (Mr. Rip- 
ley), then fresh from German universities, were wont to 
hold high converse, kindled by the enthusiasm and elo- 
quence of their inspired hostess.'' Mr. Lee never found 
fault with this punishment, often remarking that banish- 
ment into such surroundings was probably fully as bene- 
ficial as prayers and recitations at Cambridge. 

Immediately after graduation Mr. Lee entered his 
father's "counting room," and in 1838 he was taken 
into partnership. Two years later he said to the senior 
partner that either he, the father, must retire from the 
business, or he, the son, would do so. Thus in after 
years he used humorously to tell the story ; but in fact 
he was always a very respectful and affectionate son. 
The elder acted upon the suggestion, and two years 
later retired, and the partnership was continued by Mr. 
Lee and Mr. W. S. Bullard until 1852. The business 
was foreign commerce, chiefly conducted with the East 
Indies, but in part also mth Brazil, so that soon after 
graduating, Mv. Lee sailed as supercargo for Rio de 
Janeiro. His journal of the voyage was chiefly filled 
with memoranda of weather, accounts of his dreams and 
comments on the writings of Sir Walter Scott. 

In 1852 it was quite time to retire from this commer- 
cial business. The protective tariff had slowly but 
surely destroyed the foreign commerce by which the 



16 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

merchants and shipowners of New England had hitherto 
lived and prospered. For the most part those who were 
unable to change their ways had reason to regret their 
unfortunate constancy ; too many of them, clinging to a 
steadily declining business, lost in their later days all 
that they had won in their prime. Mr. Lee, more clear- 
sighted, understood the new condition and saved himself 
by leaving, not precisely the sinking ship, but the rot- 
ting ships. New England was turning to new pursuits ; 
all her streams were being dammed for water power to 
run her cotton mills, and Lowell and Lawrence were 
growing apace. A transition from foreign commerce, 
wherein the merchant had to keep constantly informed 
as to the products and industries, the laws and customs, 
the policies and even the politics of nations all over the 
world, to the dull business of spinning as many yards of 
cotton cloth as could be sold in each year, did not com- 
mend itself to Mr. Lee. Moreover he resented the eco- 
nomic policy which had effected this transformation ; for 
his father's belief in free trade had descended to him, 
and he remained a stalwart free trader to the end of his 
days. With his usual warmth of feeling, he carried his 
hostility to these upstart factories so far that he would 
never invest in their stocks. Thus debarred from com- 
merce and from manufacturing, he turned his attention 
to banking and brokerage and joined the firm of Lee, 
Higginson & Co., of which the senior member was his 
relative, John C. Lee, and the junior, George Higgin- 
son, was his brother-in-law. Thereafter he was in State 
Street nearly every day ; and the firm, of which in due 
time he became the senior partner, took the lead in its 



BUSINESS 17 

department of business. At his death he left a large 
property. In view of these facts it is right to say that 
he was a successful business man, and certainly he was 
a master of the art of business ; yet he was never really 
very fond of it, never became absorbed in it, and was very 
moderately ambitious of the distinctions which it had 
to offer. He was fortunate in his coadjutors in the firm 
and might have prospered less with the aid of partners 
less able than his brother-in-law, George Higginson, and 
his nephews, Henry L. Higginson and Francis L. Hig- 
ginson. 

Major Higginson says that it was in the periods of 
stress, in the " hard times," that Mr, Lee showed to best 
advantage. Then his courage and constancy were ad- 
mirable. But no sooner had the darkness passed than his 
habitual caution resumed its sway, and his counsel was 
to gather resources for the next days of panic. 

In handling his property it is probable that he was 
governed more by his opinions about the men who were 
conducting the enterprises in which he embarked than 
by minute investigation into the enterprises themselves. 
For example, he was well satisfied to stake his money in 
the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad with one 
who had studied the West as John M. Forbes had done, 
and in the Calumet & Hecla mine with so well-trained 
a scientist as Professor Alexander Agassiz. The sound- 
ness of his judgment worked along the human line ; 
and it was his nature to be strong alike in his faith and 
in his distrust. Real estate, however, he understood 
well. He once said, indeed, that he had been studying 
it all his life, and knew nothing about it, — a remark 

2 



18 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

not likely to be misconstrued. But a gentleman who 
can pronounce as good an opinion in the matter as any- 
one in Boston says: "Colonel Lee had a remarkably 
sagacious judgment in real estate; he owned, bought 
and sold a great deal of it ; I have constantly run across 
the trail of his transactions, and pretty much always 
there was a profit, — and a big one, too!" Certainly 
the judgment of an observant community accorded to 
him high ability as a financial adviser and a shrewd 
judge of investments. A natural consequence was that 
he was much in demand for positions of trust, and the 
funds of which, first and last, he acted as treasurer were 
innumerable. All these charges involved much care and 
responsibility ; and of course a large proportion of the 
labor brought no other compensation than such meas- 
ure of gratitude as beneficiaries saw fit to feel. For 
many years he was active in the management of the 
finances of the Provident Institution for Savings, of 
which he was elected a member in 1848, Secretary in 
1851, Trustee in 1854, and President, December 21, 
1887, which last office he continued to fill until his death. 
His great undertaking, which was wholly his own in 
conception and fulfilment, was the building of the 
" Safety Vaults " at No. 40 State Street. It is fair to 
say that this was an entirely novel undertaking; for 
though some constructions of the sort had been at- 
tempted in Philadelphia and in New York, these were 
in a crude form, and Colonel Lee's were for many years 
the best thing of the kind in the country, and be- 
came the model for others elsewhere. Of course im- 
provements have come and modern vaults display 



BUSINESS 19 

superior accommodations and somewhat more elaborate 
safeguards ; yet until the date of this writing the pres- 
tige of these old original vaults, opened for business so 
long ago as January 1, 1868, has enabled them to hold 
their popularity in a competition which has become keen. 
The building plans and the systems of protection against 
theft and fire were the fruit of Mr. Lee's own hard, 
patient and thorough labor. For example : he made an 
exhaustive investigation into the methods of safe- 
burglars; he estimated the force of impact of a large 
safe falling from the top story of the " Union Building " 
and alighting upon the roof of his vault, and having 
ascertained what number of steel girders of a given 
weight would resist that impact, he doubled this number. 
In measuring spaces he took as his unit a bond of the 
largest size then folded, and upon this basis he arranged 
his boxes. All this was work very much to his taste, 
and when all was in successful operation, the glory and 
the emolument were rightly his own. Properly known 
as the "Union Safe Deposit Vaults," they were long 
commonly spoken of as " Lee's Vaults," and the name is 
still sometimes heard. All the later vaults have been 
incorporated and these now are so ; but for many years 
they were conducted as his private enterprise. The 
control and the responsibility were exclusively his. He 
alone was hable for any loss through malfeasance or 
misfeasance or error, and some nice legal questions arose 
in which error would have been serious. His reputation 
and his fortune were at stake, and were the backers of 
the business. Therefore the reception which was ac- 
corded to the new enterprise was a great tribute to him. 



20 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

A peculiar combination of character and capacity was 
needed; and even among the most esteemed citizens it 
would have been hard to find another who, presenting 
this new scheme and quite alone in managing it, would 
have secured the fundamental condition for success in 
the confidence of the anxious and careful owners of 
bonds and stocks. Evidently the personal compliment 
to Colonel Lee can hardly be stated too highly. He 
appreciated it, and in later years with just self-satisfac- 
tion he declared this undertaking to be the " crowning 
effort " of his life and his " special pride." If he had 
been conscious merely of having exhibited mechanical 
and constructive ingenuity he would not have spoken 
thus ; the word implied a just recognition of the trust 
which had been reposed in his personal traits. But the 
generous rewards of compliment and of income cost 
their full price ; the burden of responsibility could not 
always be lightly carried, and Major Higginson says 
that it was when this enterprise was getting under way 
that he first observed that Mr. Lee was beginning to 
look old. 



CHAPTER II 

MATTERS THEATRICAL: FAMILY RELATIONS 

During these years of active business, before the 
outbreak of the Civil War, especially during the earlier 
part of them, Mr. Lee made leisure for the active culti- 
vation of his taste, or rather his passion, for the drama. 
From this let not anything derogatory to his intelligence 
be inferred, for the stage had not then sunk to the pre- 
sentation of mere brilliant spectacles, at best foolish, at 
worst demoralizing. What Mr. Lee delighted in were 
the good old " standard " plays, presented by men and 
women who were generally well educated and often 
well bred, and who had real genius for the calling. 
He knew by heart his favorite plays of Shakespeare and 
Sheridan, as a clergyman knows the Church Service. 
He could act admirably in a certain range of parts, and 
had the chance of life sent him upon the stage, he would 
have left a name to be long remembered. Doubtless 
the best amateur is excellent only as an amateur, yet 
Mr. Lee's Sir Anthony Absolute has probably left in the 
memory of those who saw it as lively and pleasing a 
presentment as the best actor ever gave them of that 
famous part. 

Opportunely for liim, there occurred in Boston a great 
outburst of enthusiasm for private theatricals ; many of 



22 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

his friends and of those younger than he were seized 
with the dramatic passion and developed an unusual 
capacity. In this movement he naturally took the lead, 
stimulating and training the others with infinite zeal and 
with a vigorous resolve not to rest at the point of mere 
amusement and perfunctory excellence. Beneath his 
imperious and unsparing criticism some of these amateurs 
would occasionally rebel, and provoke a little of that 
plain speaking which was his impetuous habit. But for 
the most part all appreciated his invaluable services, and 
justly attributed to them the exceptional success which 
was obtained. 

The first play was given in or about the winter of 
1847. A tentative and comparatively an unambitious 
selection was made of a play called " The Turnout." 
The parts were taken by Mr. Lee, by Miss Elizabeth 
Gary (afterwards the wife of the first Professor Agassiz), 
Mr. Frank Lee and Mr. Edward Jackson. Mr. Samuel 
Cabot, the father of Mrs. Lee, placed the parlors of his 
house on Temple Place at the disposal of the players. 
Colonel Perkins came in to witness the performance, 
and was so pleased that he offered his double parlors 
for such plays as they might like to produce during the 
following winter. Thus encouraged, Mr. Lee and his 
friends puslied their enterprise vigorously. Later a 
complete little theatre was built on the Brookline estate 
of Mr. Cabot. In due time the name of the Varie- 
ties Theatre was adopted; and a play-bill, dated 1857, 
announces the " Second Season," and informs the public 
that " this favorite theatre has been carefully refitted 
with improved Machinery and a new Drop Scene." 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 23 

Later the Messrs. Gushing organized the Belmont 
Dramatic Club which took its name from their father's 
country seat. They were much younger men but de- 
veloped an equal skill, and later on the older and the 
younger groups came together and united in presenting 
many plays. 

One of the earlier plays given in Colonel Perkins' 
parlors was "Perfection," which was repeated a few 
times. Another, given later at Brookline, was " The 
Waterman," a musical piece ; Mrs. Felton, the wife of 
the Greek professor at Harvard College, presided at the 
piano, and the parts so far as can be remembered were 
taken as follows : 

Bundle Mr. Lee 

Tom Tug Mr. Eichard Gary 

Robin Mr. Francis L. Lee 

Mrs. Bundle Miss S. Gary 

Wilhelmina Mrs. Agassiz 

Another popular part of Mr. Lee's was that of the 
Kincr in "Bombastes Furioso ; " his brother Mr. Francis 
L. Lee played Bombastes, Mr. Edward C. Cabot was Buzz- 
fuzz, and Mr. Thomas Cary was Distaffina. Also Mr. 
Lee and his brother Frank provoked uproarious laughter 
in the old farce of " Box & Cox." 

Naturally Mr. Lee's great liking for " The Rivals " 
led to its production on more than one occasion. It is 
a play not now often placed on the stage, because it 
demands a stronger troupe than the present star system 
permits to be brought together ; but the amateurs 
could fill the cast. On one notable occasion Mrs. 



24 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Kemble assumed the part of Mrs. Malaprop; but it 
was several years since she had been upon the stage, 
and as she was about to appear before this select audi- 
ence she had a genuine attack of stage-fright, and forgot 
her lines. On this memorable evening, said the play- 
bill, " A prologue, written by Lady Winchester, [Mrs. 
Charles P. Curtis] will be recited by Mr. [William R.] 
Ware." The cast was as follows : 

DRAMATIS PERSONAJE 

Sir Anthony Absolute Mr. Lee 

Captain Absolute Mr. Gambrill 

Mr. Faulkland Mr. Edward C. Cabot 

Mr. Acres Mr. "William S. "Whitwell 

Sir Lucius O'Trigger Mr, Francis L. Lee 

Fag Mr. Robert B. Forbes, Jr. 

David Mr. Walter Cabot 

Coachman and Boy, by the Company 

Mrs. Malaprop Mrs. Kemble 

Miss Lydia Languish Mrs. Harrison Ritchie 

Julia Mrs. Wilde 

Lucy Miss Clevenger 



MANAGER 
Mr. Lee 

PROMPTER 
Mr. J. E. Cabot 



At another presentation Mr. Edward N. Perkins 
played Captain Absolute, Mr. John Lowell (who was 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 25 

afterwards Judge of the U. S. Circuit Court), played Bob 
Acres, Mr. R. B. Forbes, Jr., was Fag, and Mr. Walter 
Cabot was David. Miss Cary was Julia; Mrs. Mala- 
prop was played by IMrs. Charles Torrey, and she was 
considered to give it admirably, much better even than 
Mrs. Kemble. Mrs. Davis (daughter of William H. 
Gardiner) was Lucy. On still another occasion Mr. 
T. Cary, Miss Julia Cabot (afterwards Mrs. AVilde), 
Miss Fanny Cary (afterwards Mrs. Edward Cunning- 
ham) and Miss Mary Torrey appeared. 

In " The Amusing Farce of A Splendid Investment " 
the play-bill was : 

Rockingham Mr. F. L. Lee 

Titus Fulgent Mr. William S. Whitwell 

Boddy Mr. Lee 

Joe Mr. Theodore Lyman 

BaiUff Mr. R. B. Forbes, Jr. 

Mrs. "Winterton Miss Susan Dorr 

Miss Emily Fielding Mrs. Lyman 

Fanny Boddy Miss Caroline Cabot 

On February 3, 1858, the Manager "had the honor to 
announce that the theatre, having been cleaned and 
dusted during the recess," would be "re-opened, with 
additional scenery, for its third season." On this even- 
ing a prologue, "by a distinguished authoress," [Mrs. 
Follen], w^as recited by Mr. FoUen ; the first play, one 
of Planche's comedies, bears the title of " Not a Bad 
Judge," but is perhaps more commonly known by the 
name of " Lavater, " from the principal character. This 
was the part taken by Charles Mathews when the play 



26 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

was brought out in 1848 at the " Original Olympic " 
in London. It was one of the best pieces given at the 
Varieties Theatre. The cast was as follows : 

Marquis de Treval Mr. Charles Howard 

Count de Steinberg Mr. Edward C. Cabot 

John Caspar Lavater Mr. Lee 

Christian Mr. William R. Ware 

Betman Mr. Theodore Lyman 

Zug Mr. Robert B. Forbes, Jr. 

Rutley Mr. F. L. Lee 

Notary Mr. William S. Whitwell 

Servant Mr. Higginson 

Louise de Steinberg Miss Fanny McGregor 

Madame Betman Mrs. Theodore Lyman 

The record of some other plays, of which the bills 
have been preserved, will be so interesting to those who 
will recall them, that space may properly be given for 
their reproduction : 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 27 

PRIVATE THEATRICALS 

FOR THE 

BENEFIT 

OF THE 

MASSACHUSETTS INFANTS' ASYLUM 

AT 

HORTICULTURAL HALL, 

Wednesday Evening, March 31, 1869. 

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER! 
A Comedy in Five Acts^ by Oliver Goldsmith. 

CAST OF CHARACTERS. 

Sir Charles Marlowe, Mr. E. Jackson. 

Young Marlowe, Mr. R. M. Gushing. 

Hardcastle, Mr. Jere Abbott. 

Hastings, Mr. E. D. Boit, Jr. 

Tony Lumpkin, Mr. O. Goodwin. 

Diggory, Mr. E. F. Bowditch. 

Roger, Mr. C. Lovering. 

Landlord, Mr. E. Bowditch. 

Jeremy, Mr. F. Dabnev. 

Thomas, Mr. T. Motley, Jr. 

Servant, Mr. A. Gorham. 

Mrs. Hardcastle, Miss H. A. Adam. 

Miss Hardcastle, Miss Russell. 

Miss Neville, Miss Abbott. 

Dolly, Miss Chapman. 



The Curtain will rise at Eight o'clock. 



28 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

PRIVATE THEATRICALS 

AT 

HORTICULTURAL HALL, 

BY THE 

BOSTON AMATEUR DRAMATIC CLUB, 

Evenings of 

December 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d [1869 or 1870]. 

The performance will begin with the Comedy entitled 

THE BRIGANDS OF LODI. 

Marquis del Dougo, Mr. H. Lee 

Maurice, (Lieut, of lufantry,) . Mr. Edward Bowditch 

Dumoulin, (Sergeant,) Mr. F. L. Lee 

Chevalier Hercule del Piffero, .... Mr. T. F. Gushing 

First Footman, Mr. O. Goodwin 

Second Footman, Mr. A. Gorham 

Marquise del Dongo, Mrs. James Lodge 

Comtesse Beatrice Pietranera, Miss Russell 

Helena, Miss Steed]vla.n 

To he followed by the Farce of 

DAMON AND PYTHIAS. 

Damon, Mr. E. D. Boit, Jr. 

Pythias, Mr. G. B. Blake, Jr. 

Mr. Timepiece, Mr. H. Lee 

Billy, Mr. E. Jackson 

Mrs. Stokes, Miss H. A. Adam 

Jane, Miss Bigelow 

Guests. 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 29 

PRIVATE THEATRICALS 

AT 

HORTICULTURAL HALL, 

BY THE 

BOSTON AMATEUR DRAMATIC CLUB, 

Evenings op 
February 14th, 15th, and 17th [1870 or 1871]. 

The performance will begin with the Comedy, 
in three Acts., entitled 

MODERN WARFARE. 

Philippe de Mauri, Mr. R. M. Cushing 

Gaston de Rech, (Capt. in the 2d Zouaves,) Mr. E. D. Boit, Jr. 

M. Badiuois, Mr. G. B. Blake, Jr. 

M. Montgerard, Mr. H. Lee 

Henriette Dolcy, Mrs. G. D. Howe 

Athenais, (Montgerard's sister,) . . . Mrs. James Lodge 
Claire, (her niece,) Mrs. E. D. Boit, Jr. 

Servants^ Guests. 

To be followed by the Farce of 

A GOOD NIGHT'S REST. 

SnobLington, Mr. E. F. Bowditch 

Stranger, Mr. F. L. Lee 



30 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

PKIVATE THEATRICALS 

AT 

HORTICULTURAL HALL, 

BT THE 

BOSTON AMATEUR DRAMATIC CLUB, 
Evenings of 
January 17th, 18th, 20th, and 21st [1870 or 1871]. 

The performance will begin with the Comedy 
THE CAT CHANGED INTO A WOMAN. 

Karl, (a student,) Mr. H. G. Pickering 

Moritz, (an Indian Juggler,) Mr. F. L. Lee 

Minette, (Karl's cousin,) Mrs. S. Hammond 

Martha, (Karl's housekeeper,) . . . Mrs. James Lodge 

To le followed by the Comedy in Three Acts, entitled 

A NERVOUS SET. 

M. Bergerin, (retired old bachelor,) . . . Mr. J. Abbott 
M. Marteau, (house-owner,) .... Mr. S. M. Quincy 
Tiburce, (employed in post-office,) . Mr. E. F. Bowditch 
Cfesar, (Marteau's nephew,) . . . Mr. G. B. Blake, Jr. 
M. Tuffier, (retired hardware merchant,) Mr. R. M. Cushing 

Louis, (his son,) Mr. O. Goodwin 

Notary, Mr. E. Jackson 

Auguste, (Marteau's servant,) .... Mr. A. Goriiam 

Mme. Tuffier, Mrs. James Lodge 

Marion, (Marteau's adopted daughter,) . . Miss Warren 
Placide, (Marteau's housekeeper,) . . Miss H. A. Adam 
Lucie, (Marteau's daughter), .... Miss M. Steedman 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 31 

PRIVATE THEATRICALS 

AT 

HORTICULTURAL HALL, 

BY THE 

BOSTON AMATEUR DRAMATIC CLUB, 

Evenings op 
April 18th, 19th, and 21st [1871]. 

The performance will begin with the Comedy 
in Four Acts, entitled 

SMILES AND TEARS. 

Maurice Borel, Mr. R. M. Gushing 

M. Bidaut, Mr. H. Lee 

Vincent, Mr. 0. Goodwin 

Bleunier, Mr. T. F. Gushing 

Clerk, Mr. S. M. Quincy 

Junior Clerk, Mr. H. Williams 

Mme. Rey, Mrs. E. J. Lowell 

Jeanne Rey, Mrs. S. Hammond 

Jeanne Vanneau, Miss Hale 

Laurence, Mrs. E. D. Boit, Jr. 

And will conclude with the Farce of 
THE GOOD FOR NOTHING. 



Tom Dibbles, (a gardener,) . . 
Harry Collier, (a railway fireman,) 
Charley, (a carpenter,) .... 

Mr. Simpson, 

Nan, 



Mr. Jere Abbott 
. Mr. O. Goodwin 
. Mr. N. Guilds 

Mr. S. M. Quincy 
. . . Miss Hale 



82 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Another play, sometimes presented, was " False Col- 
ours," a translation of "La Poudre aux Yeux." So 
nearly as can be ascertained it was in the " Season " 
of 1865-66, and after the union with the Gushing 
troupe, that Mr. Lee urged that they should under- 
take " The Hunchback," an ambitious and difficult 
enterprise, which somewhat alarmed his associates. 
But he insisted that they could do it, and they did 
with remarkable success. Mrs. Alexander Agassiz 
played Julia, Mrs. Charles Pierson played Helen, Mr. 
Edward Boit Avas Clifford, Mr. Robert Cushing was 
Modus, and Mr. Jere Abbott was Fathom. Mr. Lee 
himself was Master Walter, and presented the char- 
acter with a success which is still spoken of with 
enthusiasm by those who saw it. 

Another cast of these characters, written in Mr. Lee's 
book, is: 

Master "Walter Mr. H. Lee 

Sir T. Cliflford Mr. Edward D. Boit, Jr. 

Lord Tinsel Mr. Daniel C. Payne 

Modus Mr. Theodore Lyman 

Fathom Mr. Ozias Goodwin 

Master Wilford Mr. Edward C. Cabot 

Julia Miss Emily Russell 

Helen Mrs. Theodore Lyman 

As the interest expanded and the successes were 
scored in a way that gave encouragement to the players, 
Horticultural Hall was hired, in 1870-71, and many per- 
formances were given there. The corps of actors and 
actresses naturally underwent many changes, as some 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 33 

" retired from the stage " and others entered the calling. 
Besides those who have been already named, there are 
remembered INIiss Warren, afterwards Mrs. Charles Gib- 
son, and Mr. Howard Dwight, of the Brookline troupe ; 
and there were many more whose names the writer fails 
to gather. Very charming it all was, alike for those be- 
hind and those before the footlights, and few pleasanter 
reminiscences remain for those who live to recall these 
scenes. But it would be futile to seek to do more 
than merely catalogue them; description would be 
colorless. 

Later, when these groups were broken up, as such 
groups always must be in time. Colonel Lee was often 
asked to read in a sort of quasi-public way, and many 
times consented. Somewhat modest as to his capacity 
to read Shakespeare, he was apt to choose Sheridan. 
" The Rivals " and " The School for Scandal " were thus 
given with fine picturesqueness and grace. His prefer- 
ence was for the former ; the latter, he said, left a some- 
what bad taste in his mouth. 

Recalling pleasant hours passed in listening to these 
readings, one of Colonel Lee's nieces writes : 

*' All my memories of evenings at the Brookline house, 
in the days when we were going to school, are filled with 
associations with Shakespere's plays. It was a matter 
of course that after supper we should all take our draw- 
ing and sit round the table in the parlor while Uncle 
Harry, usually with one of the children in his arms, read 
aloud to us. The great comedies. As You Like It, 
Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth 
Xight, Much Ado About Nothing were often read ; and 

3 



34 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

finest of all, the Merchant of Venice, in every line of 
which I can hear his voice and wonderful dramatic in- 
flexion, so filling out each part that never in later years 
in seeing it acted have I enjoyed it as then I enjoyed 
hearing him read it. This familiarity with Shakespere, 
which we owe to Uncle Harry, has run like a golden 
thread through our lives ever since. 

" During the many years since that time, almost always 
reading to Aunt Lizzie a part of each evening, Uncle 
Harry must have read aloud books enough to overpass 
the narrow limits of an everyday education. Sometimes 
it would be some political address of the day, or some 
book of importance. Sometimes a novel by Trollope, or 
Scott, or Miss Austen, so read that one got the flavour 
of the author better than if one were reading to one's 
self. 

" The short services which Uncle Harry held on sum- 
mer Sundays at Beverly Farms were very delightful, 
and made the day a true Sunday for us. The picture 
is very clear and bright still, of the cool western 
drawing-room, the view of the sea, Mr. and Mrs. Elliot 
Cabot, Mrs. Park man, sometimes one or another neigh- 
bor, and many of us children, quiet for the moment at 
least. Uncle Harry would read from the Bible, and 
then a sermon, perhaps by F. W. Robertson, or Dr. 
Arnold, perhaps by Dr. Hedge, or Dr. James Freeman 
Clarke, and two hymns would be sung, Mrs. Cabot play- 
ing and every one singing. 

"A drive with Uncle Harry in the broadly-built 
phaeton mth the two spirited horses was always memo- 
rable, and his vivid antiquarian and genealogical sense 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 35 

gave one more of the past than one could attain in any 
other way. His love of natural beauty was keen and 
very perceptive and discriminating. He cared also for 
the human beauty of the landscape, that look which the 
surface of the earth acquires when it has been patiently 
worked over for generations, and when it still bears 
witness to its history in the rekition of its towns to each 
other, its roads, and its local names and traditions. 

" Perhaps his roots struck deeper into the soil of Essex 
County than into that of Norfolk, and its past was more 
living to him. It seemed as if one drove back into the 
days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as one drove 
toward North Beverly, by the old plantation houses, 
well proportioned, with big recessed chimney-stacks, and 
that ineffaceable dignity which neither time nor present 
shabbiness obliterates. He took especial pleasure in the 
Ipswich Farms Road for its true Essex County charac- 
teristics of small farms, weU-tilled fields, and carefully 
tended fruit trees, comfortable houses, whose square 
outlines, white paint and trim garden beds by the front 
door all spoke of earlier days in Essex County, when all 
who dwelt there made it their home winter and summer 
alike, and seemed to draw into their very fibre the charac- 
teristics of the region." 

Mr. Lee lived long enough to see the passing away 
of that stage which he loved. Modern actors seldom 
pleased him as the old ones had done. Among his 
papers there is a fragment, in which his contempt and 
indignation for so distinguished a pair as Irving and 
Miss Terry find unfinished expression. He had seen 
them in some of those parts wliich in earlier days he 



36 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

had seen presented, as he thought, so immeasurably 
better. His wrath boiled over, and he began a paper 
for publication. So much of it as he completed is too 
pungently characteristic to be lost: 

" Am I verging into senility that I can no longer 
experience satisfaction, much less enchantment, at the 
theatre ? "What are to me calcium lights, gorgeous oft- 
changed costumes, or even well-painted scenery, if the 
actors are wanting ? When aided, or encumbered, as one 
may view it, by these accessories, how can I be carried 
away when a shambling, halting, galvanic, wooden-faced 
Benedick with spasmodic utterance makes love to a 
faded, coquettish, thinly superficial Beatrice ? 

" As Charles Kemble played Petruchio, the audience 
beheld a high-bred spirited gentleman, who so assumed 
violence that they could enjoy it without fear ; but now 
one is made to feel that Katherine has been consigned to 
a born ruffian. These are instances of vulgarity or 
imbecility, but what excuse can be proffered for mutilat- 
ing a work of art that an impotent actor may masquerade 
as the hero? Was any act more preposterous than 
Irving's rough-hewing Macbeth that he might creep into 
the part ? Look at the portrait of Ellen Terry dressed 
as Lady Macbeth, and then think of Mrs. Siddons, or of 
our own Charlotte Cushman in that part. Could im- 
pertinence further go, unless it be Mr. Mansfield outdoing 
Colley Cibber with Richard III ? " 

Afterward, in other characters, he esteemed Sir Henry 
more highly, and he was willing to preside at the dinner 
which the Tavern Club gave in honor of the actor. On 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 37 

that occasion he made such a very flattering speech as 
the festivity demanded ; and after all allowance is made 
for the necessity imposed by the situation, it is right 
to believe that he spoke sincerely when he said : 

"I am surely not here in any theatrical capacity to 
offend our guest with adulation, or to insult him with 
criticism, but simply to articulate, as it were, your 
hospitality, to assure him how eagerly we have looked 
forward to the day when we could entertain him as our 
guest. 

" As an old play-goer, however, I may perhaps venture 
to say that I have seen Charles Kean from his ddbut to 
liis farewell as Louis XI., and while I have always 
thought that his greatest achievement, and have recol- 
lected it with admiration, I was more deeply impressed, 
or, as I may say, horrified, by Mr. Irving's personation. I 
should shrink from gazing at any more lifelike presenta- 
tion of this craven, crafty, superstitious old monster, 
hovering between life and death, his corruption made 
more ghastly by the sheen of his bejewelled crown and 
ermined robes. There was not a tone, or a look, or a 
gesture, or a movement at fault, — it was a diabolical 
symphony from beginning to end. 

" And the figure of that guilt-burdened Matthias, 
haunted day and night by the janghng of the bells, and 
confounded ever and anon by the ghost of his victim, 
and at last, under the influence of the mesmerizer, 
writhing with terror and remorse, and revealing his 
guilt ! 

llast thou not seen upon a lifted face 

Thoughts that the halting lips have failed to tell ? 



38 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

The resources of the stage were exhausted in that 
appeal to eye and ear; one remembers it as the vivid 
enacting of a hideous nightmare, as it was. 

" It is said that a man may be known by the 
company he keeps. I think we are well satisfied 
with the company Mr. Irving keeps, including espe- 
cially Miss Ellen Terry. Let us all join in drinking to 
the health of Mr. Henry Irving, the hospitable host, the 
welcome guest, the eminent actor, the liberal manager." 

By another distinguished actor a famous character of 
the old stage was so strangely bedizened and miscon- 
strued as to stir Mr. Lee's gall. It demanded some 
courage to assail a presentation given by the popular 
Joseph Jefferson. But Mr, Lee was nothing if not 
outspoken, and no respect for persons, not even his 
friendly feeling for Mr. Jefferson, could keep him silent 
when Sheridan's brilliant creation of Bob Acres was 
turned into a vulgar burlesque. No one who has 
witnessed that strange aberration into mere buffoonery 
on the part of the great actor will deny that Mr. Lee's 
scathing criticism was as just as it was severe : 

" The papers announce that Jefferson is to appear as 
Bob Acres. I look forward with impatience, for I dote 
on The Rivals. Contrary to the critics, I prefer it to 
the School for Scandal, which always leaves a bad 
taste in my mouth. At last the hour arrives, I make 
my way into the theatre breathless and fluttered, awaiting 
the test. Two hours later I slink out of the building, 
stunned and compromised. I have assisted at a vulgar 
outrage, a wanton insult, a nauseous incongruity. Is 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 39 

this the classic composed by Sheridan, every line full of 
meaning, every sentence rounded, which the best come- 
dians had illustrated ever since the battle of Bunker 
Hill, which I have seen countless times in Boston and 
New York, as well as in New Orleans, London, and 
elsewhere, every word of which I know by heart? 
What is this hodge-podge they are talking ? Why does 
Sir Lucius, a liigh-spirited Lish gentleman, exchange 
vulgar familiarities with Fag, and why is he so elephan- 
tine ? Sheridan gives us to understand that Bob Acres 
is a jolly, obtuse, raw, country Squire, apple-faced, 
goggle-eyed, pudding-voiced; but here we have a 
lanthom-jawed, nasal-twanged, shrewd-eyed, speculative 
Yankee. As for the dialogue, instead of Sheridan's 
finished, perfect, impressive sentences, sparkling with 
wit and humour, neither too long nor too short, we 
have a hodge-podge composed by the dramatis personse 
as they go along, wretched verbiage. 

" Why are Julia and Faulkland, whose over-strained 
sentiments and lovers' quarrels serve as a foil to Lydia's 
light absurdities, left out, leaving the picture like the 
new Spanish school without the shading?" 

That the pessimism of advancing years had not 
robbed Mr. Lee of the power of enjoying what was 
good, is shown by a letter from him to Mr. Kendal, 
written in December, 1889, and which the most ardent 
admirers of that actor would certainly not have found 
deficient in enthusiasm. As a septuagenarian, he enume- 
rates the actors and actresses, French and English, 
whom he had seen, making one feel that there were 



40 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

advantages in living half a century or more ago, even 
though it might result in being dead now. These, he 
says, were " actors who had died or retired before you 
two were brought into this naughty world, or Mrs. 
Kendal would not be so fair, or you so fresh, as you 
are. As an old-stager, I say that, outside of the Fran- 
9ais, or the Gymnase in its palmy days, I have never 
seen comedy better supported or its leading parts 
better taken than by you and your company." He 
selected for especial compliment the parts of Philippe 
Derblay and Captain Crichton. He did not know, he 
said, " which most to praise ; " and then, with the fine 
gallantry of an old gentleman, he penned his concluding 
paragraph : 

" As for Mrs. Kendal, if I should attempt to portray 
her charms, I should bubble over as did Sir Anthony 
in describing Lydia Languish. She is, in one word, — 
fascinating. I cannot say whether I prefer to see her 
take the stage, when she recalls the example in the 
Latin grammar ' Ilia incedit regina,' or whether I prefer 
to listen to her English so exquisitely delivered. . . . 
Some of your dramatic brethren have vexed my 
spirit by peeping out from their parts, their pecu- 
liarities as individuals clashing with their character- 
istics as personators of parts. You throw yourselves 
into youi' parts, and leave your own chamcters at 
home." 

Naturally, Mr. Lee's personal acquaintance with the 
best actors and actresses became extensive. One of his 
friendships, much transcending casual acquaintance, was 
with William Warren, the accomphshed gentleman and 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 41 

delightful companion, who passed his life on the boards 
of the Museum, so that for more than a generation 
dwellers in out-of-the-way Boston could see, whenever 
they pleased, an actor who could have made a great 
name in the world had he been willing to show himself 
more widely. When Mr. Warren died Mr. Lee wrote 
this obituary, two months before he followed his old 
friend : 

" Two score years have slipped by since William 
Warren came amongst us, a stranger in a strange land ; 
unheralded, unknown save to those of his profession 
who recognized in him a promising scion of a sound 
dramatic stock. Five of the seven ages have been spent 
in this town, five of his seven acts played here. The 
last scene of all ended and the curtain rung down but 
yesterday. 

" If it would be extravagant to say that his death has 
' eclipsed the gayety of nations,' it is certainly true that 
' it has impoverished tlie stock of harmless pleasures,' 
for which during his long service he has been the 
delight of town and country. While he has convulsed 
his hearers with laughter, and again melted them to 
tears, the laughter has been innocent, the grief whole- 
some, for he has never overstepped the bounds of 
modesty. Ranging all the way from high comedy to 
broad farce, depicting every age, country and condition, 
he contrived to extract the humour of the part with- 
out its grossness; he was 'familiar, but by no means 
vulgar,' he was pathetic, but never mawkish. In brief, 
his characters, clearly conceived, sharply executed, ad- 
justed to the perspective of the stage, stood forth 



42 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

living, breathing human beings, without a trait lost, 
blurred, or exaggerated. 

Whate'er he did, was done with so much ease 
In him alone 't was natural to please. 

" The success of an actor upon the stage is not propor- 
tioned to his private worth ; and yet with actors, as with 
authors, the character of a man betrays itself, and in- 
creases, or decreases, our relish of his performance. We 
all knew when we listened to this charming actor that 
he was free from ' the fretful stir unprofitable,' and was 
content to remain a member of the stock company on a 
meagre salary, while men vastly his inferiors were flash- 
ing about the country as stars ; — we all knew that he 
not only dedicated his invaluable talents to one theatre, 
but also that by his unvarying kindness, liis charitable 
silence when criticism would have been excusable, he 
won the respect and love of his fellow-actors ; that he 
was a peacemaker, and not, like so many leading actors, 
a stirrer of strife. 

" His life was gentle. ' Nobody knows how good he 
was,' says his old friend and landlady for these many 
years, ' nobody else knew how good he was.' While 
the full measure of his goodness was appreciated only by 
his relatives and intimates, to whom lie was loyally at- 
tached, enough transpired to beget a universal affection 
and esteem. He was the recipient of many compliments 
from societies and from clubs, and only his invincible 
modesty preserved his privacy. But what must have 
been more gratifying to him was the universal regard, 
deepening into solicitude in these last years, which man- 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 43 

ifested itself in a thousand ways, as with slower and 
slower steps he paced the streets of the old town he had 
adopted as his home. The faithful watchers by his bed- 
side hardly know how many outside watchers shared 
their hopes and fears while this unselfish and well- 
beloved man hovered between life and death. 

" ' When the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and 

when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me.' 

" H. L. 
" Sept. 22, 1898." 

John Gilbert and Mrs. Gilbert, impersonations of the 
fine dignity and courtesy of the " Old School," are names 
dear to all playgoers. Mr. Lee knew them well, and 
loved them with his sjanpathetic warmth of appreciation. 
When Gilbert died Mr. Lee performed for him the like 
service of affection and respect which he performed for 
Warren. 

With Mrs. Fanny Kemble, in whose veins ran, — and 
in a very vigorous stream, too, — as good ch-amatic blood 
as any in England, Mr. Lee maintained one of his most 
highly valued friendships. Her strenuous and exuber- 
ant nature overwhelmed ordinary persons, who were 
content to admire her briUiant vitality at a safe distance. 
But Mr. Lee gave outspoken admiration to a character 
which resembled his own m its courage and frankness, 
its ardor and generosity. The same plays were familiar 
to each, the same school of acting was dear to each. 
Many lines of sympathy connected them. The letters 
which she wrote to Colonel Lee, up to her latest days, 
are charming, with their warmth of expression and 
vividness of phrase ; so that for the moment one may re- 



44 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

gret that there is no memoir of her wherein these out- 
bursts might find a place. Unfortunately only one or 
two of Mr. Lee's letters to her are to be found. A note 
from her indicates that Mr. Lee had ventured upon the 
delicate task of selecting a lady's hat for the actress to 
wear in the part of Mrs. Malaprop : 

" My dear Sir : — 

" I am extremely obliged to you for the trouble you are 
taking about my attire. You have found the identical 
hat I wish for — with the alterations — it is not neces- 
sary that the sides should be curled as those in the model 
are, — a plain flat brim is all that is required because, as 
the hat should be made of light black velvet with a wire 
round the brim, it can be easily made to sit upon the 
head at the wearer's discretion. Instead of the featlier 
from behind, I should like a buncii of shortish black 
feathers in front." 

In 1888 Monsieur Coquelin came over to the United 
States and gave an^ extraordinary treat to our people, 
even to those who could not understand French. He 
warmed the cockles of Colonel Lee's heart, recalling the 
delightful days when he had been able to frequent Paris- 
ian theatres. The Tavern Club gave a grand dinner in 
honor of the clever foreigner, at which Colonel Lee pre- 
sided, pronouncing a welcome in an admirable speech, 
which also was full of reminiscences and of hearty com- 
pliment, lie opened it happily with a quotation from 
the play of Mademoiselle de la Seigliere, in which 
Coquelin had won much applause : " Monsieur, vous 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 45 

Stes chez vous." As ill luck will have it, only frag- 
mentary notes can be found of this occasion, so mem- 
orable for all who were present. On May 24, 1889, he 
presided at the dinner given by the same club to Mr. 
Gericke, the leader of the Symphony Orchestra, then 
about to leave for Europe. On November 14, 1889, he 
again presided when the club gave a dinner to the elder 
Salvini. 

The day after this Salvini dinner brought to Colonel 
Lee this letter of quasi-official recognition, which justly 
expressed his success and his influence on these occa- 
sions : 

" My dear Mr. Lee : — 

" I want to let you know again in writing what uni- 
versal pleasure has been expressed among the Tavern 
Club members over your charming leadership last night. 
It is such evenings as these which put the Tavern Club 
on a high plane and make one realize the fact that a 
group of men, who can have a really hilarious and jolly 
good time, can also enjoy the dignity and charm of a 
dinner like this to Salvini. 

" I sincerely hope that the worry you felt over it has 
not been too much for you ; but rest assured we all feel 
grateful for your help. 

" Believe me, in the name of all those present last night, 
" Gratefully and sincerely yours, 

"Vincent Y. Bowditch." 

For a time Mr. Lee was president of the Tavern Club, 
but declined re-election. A dinner was given in his 
honor, which, like gratitude, signified thanks for favors 



46 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

conferred and the hope of favors to come. That he felt 
a little embarrassment in replying before such an audi- 
ence to the speech of welcome is easily seen in his 
words : 

" Your president's kind words and your hearty ap- 
plause manifest warm hearts rather than cool heads ; I 
am both flattered and confounded. 

" Waldo Emerson once said to me : ' It was your grand- 
father, yes I your father's father, who was wont to say 
to his sons : " I don't care what you do, so long as you 
speak the truth." ' Professor Norton had much converse 
with Emerson, but I don't believe he ever heard him 
say that. Since that rebuke by Mr. Emerson I have 
striven to follow the injunction of my grandfather, 
though in that, as in other respects, I don't come quite 
up to George Washington. 

" Some years ago at a political convention to which I 
was a delegate, a peace-loving member expressed a hope 
that, when the nomination was made, it would be unan- 
imous ; whereupon I replied that could not be, as I would 
not vote for either candidate if every other delegate did. 
So on the present occasion the expression cannot be 
unanimous, as my intimate acquaintance with the per- 
son lauded compels me to disclaim some of the credit 
awarded him. I felt how it would be, for I knew that 
you were under a delusion, and I accordingly shrank 
from the occasion. Twenty-four years ago some over- 
zealous friends urged me to accept a similar compliment ; 
an event in the family prevented the dinner taking 
place, and I have always congratulated myself upon my 
escape. The fact is, that instead of a surplus, there is a 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 47 

deficit in my account; so when you speak of thanks 
and obligations, I can only say, as the embarrassed angel 
said to Abraham when he invited him to sit down : ' II 
n'y a pas de quoi, Monsieur.' 

"But as we are together once again, there is one subject 
of mutual felicitation ; we have kept our promises ; we 
have fulfilled our assurances. I warned you that through 
age and infirmity I should frequently disappoint you, 
and I have ; — you assured me that you would spare and 
support me, and you have done so most loyally. When 
the bells clang in the tower, the vibrations would shake 
it to the ground were it not for the buttresses, and I 
should have reeled to the ground sometimes had you 
not cheered and encouraged me. 

" ' How could I help speaking well,' said a Phi Beta 
Kappa orator to me, * with such a responsive audience,' 
and I can truly say that the success of our meetings has 
been owing quite as much to your determination to be 
pleased as to my powers of pleasing. The ease of 
manner, the fulness of tone, the flow of thought of the 
speaker, depend much upon the responsiveness of the 
hearers. But after-dinner speaking is nervous work, 
at the best. 

" When Mr. Kendal confided to me his panic at being 
summoned to speak, how he turned as white as the 
table-cloth, that it gave him great pain to be called 
upon, I assured him that his case was not peculiar. I 
remember the night of M. Coquelin's reception; — I 
had been to the theatre and escorted a lady friend to 
her carriage. While waiting for the coachman to drive 
up, she saw that I was quaking, my teeth chattering, 



48 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

and ascribing it to the cold, she kindly desired me to 
leave her. I replied that the occupation was a relief, 
that I was trembling with fear, not with cold, that I was 
engaged to welcome M. Coquelin in French and Eng- 
lish, and that I was nearly dead with fright. And upon 
every occasion when I have been called upon to preside, 
the ordeal has been formidable to me; I have always 
feared a failure and it is to your cheery support, as I 
have already said, that I owe my success. 

" We all agree that we have had a good time together; 
we have played the host to distinguished and agreeable 
guests, and conferred and received gratification. And 
how much the general tenor of our life is affected by 
' snatching these fleeting pleasures 1 ' They who tread 
the path of duty too steadily, thinking to take their 
pleasures hereafter, make of their lives a dike from the 
cradle to the grave ; our work and play must be alter- 
nated as we go along. My regrets for pleasures fore- 
gone date back to my earliest days. One afternoon 
as I was ' creeping like a snail unwillingly to school,' at 
the age of four years, a company of soldiers in brilliant 
uniforms, with martial music, marched by and I longed 
to follow them. Through seventy years I have never 
forgotten how reluctantly I turned away and dived 
down the little alley by St. Paul's to my schoolroom, 
nor have I ever ceased to regret my loss of that feast 
of sight and sound. 

" So long as you select your members and your guests 
as carefully as now, and guard against forcing occasions, 
you will continue to have entertainments delightful in 
reality and retrospect. To draw your members from a 



MATTERS THEATRICAL 49 

wide range, to mingle old and young, is surely desirable ; 
but it is not wise to select a president from the oldest. 
You hear of practical plumbers ; you should have a 
practical president, which I was not. As for me, I am 
like those old generals and admirals, who have reached 
their high rank by outliving their comrades. Mr. Web- 
ster's saying, ' There is always room at the top,' applied 
to the ladder of achievement and not to a procession. 
To find yourself at, or near, the head of a chronological 
procession is but a reminder of your advanced standing 
in years, and not in achievement ; it is not pleasant, and 
this winter has recalled that fact with sad frequency. 
An eminent surgeon dies, my old playmate from in- 
fancy to mature age, — he is my junior by one year ; 
my good old friend, who has served his country faith- 
fully in peace and war, dies, — he was a boy playing on 
Cambridge Common to the end of my sophomore year ; 
a distinguished general passes away, — like my friend, 
he was three years my junior; a bishop, called 'vener- 
able,' dies, — he is eleven years my junior. These, and 
other events of a more private nature, feelingly per- 
suade me what I am, admonish me of the passage of time 
and of the limits of life. So, while I hope to be with 
you occasionally, it would have been a poor requital 
of your unremitting kindness and forbearance to have 
remained your president on such a precarious footing. 

It is time to be old, 
To take in sail ; — 
The god of bounds, 
Who sets to seas a shore, 
Came to me in his fatal rounds, 
And said : — ' No More ! ' " 
4 



50 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

On October 20, 1845, Colonel Lee was married to 
Elizabeth Perkins Cabot, a daughter of Samuel Cabot, 
and through her mother a granddaughter of that Col. 
Thomas Handasyd Perkins who, in his day, was one of 
the most prominent citizens of Boston. The match 
proved eminently happy in spite of certain misgivings ex- 
pressed by a lady who had married one of his relatives,^ 
and who now ventured the opinion that the men of the 
family were not well adapted for matrimony. This lady 
was highly esteemed for her intelligence by a large 
circle of judicious friends; and she should have had 
abundant opportunity to know concerning that where- 
of she deponed ; but, if her generalization was true, at 
least ]Mr. Lee furnished the necessary exception. He 
was never " rough " to any woman, least of all towards 
his wife. Ordinarily his manners to ladies were marked 
by a fine gallantry, which never failed to charm them, 
for it was altogether sincere, the natural expression of 
a very chivalrous sentiment towards the sex ; he did not 
keep it for full-dress occasions, holding another set of 
manners in reserve for domestic use. 

Of this man-iage there were born four sons and four 
daughters. George Lee, Eliot C. Lee, Joseph Lee, and 
Mrs. Frederick C. (Elizabeth P.) Shattuck, are living. 

Of the year of affliction which robbed Colonel Lee of 
three other children, his niece, Miss Frances R. Morse 
writes : 

" Unusual and heavy sorrows fell upon Colonel Lee in 
the year 1872. In the autumn of 1871 he and Mrs. Lee, 
with their daughter Clara, then twenty-one years old, 

1 See post, p. 77. 



FAMILY MATTERS 61 

and two younger daughters, -went abroad. Colonel Lee's 
eldest son was then in Paris, a student in Bonnat's 
atelier, where they saw him for a time on their way to 
Italy. They passed the winter in Rome, and there, in 
February, the little youngest daughter, eight years old, 
was taken ill with diphtheria, and died. Clara, who had 
nursed her devotedly, took the disease from her and died 
a week later. Both are buried in the Protestant cemetery 
iu Rome. 

Colonel Lee's son came from Paris and joined his 
father and mother in Florence, and was with them 
through the summer in Switzerland, — a companionship 
■which brought healing and comfort. "In October he 
contracted typhoid fever in the Low Countries, and 
after some weeks of illness in London he died there on 
November 10th. 

" Bereaved of three children. Colonel and Mrs. Lee 
came home to Brookline in the late autumn of 1872. 
What they lost in the two elder children, already come 
to manhood and womanhood, it is better not to try to 
tell. That in his little youngest daughter Colonel Lee 
lost a source of soothing, comfort and delight, no one 
can forget who had seen him come home tired from the 
day's work in town, take her in his arms, and put his 
head by hers. Fifteen years after her death the 14th of 
February is noted in his diary as 'Susie's birthday.* His 
heart was very tender for others who bore like sorrows. 

"Colonel Lee seldom directly referred to the hopes 
and promise which ended in that sad year. He made no 
pause in his work, but went steadily on with all that he 
had undertaken, but when he sometimes spoke of the 



52 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

way in which a house, built to be a happy home, might 
become a tomb, one felt how deep was the scar." 

During the latter part of this period, Ralph Waldo 
Emerson with whom Mr. Lee was on terms of warm 
friendship, together with his son Edward W. Emerson, 
tlien a student of medicine, were in Europe, and Dr. 
Emerson writes : 

"When we reached London, we learned that the 
younger Harry Lee was very sick with typhoid fever. 
The alarm and distress which this brought to his parents 
can be imagined, yet day by day I saw Colonel Lee tak- 
ing his solitary walk with a brave face and that redoubt- 
able military air which he always had. More than that, 
he called almost daily upon my father, and putting his 
own suffering out of sight, was friendly, helpful and 
always entertaining, treating m}^ father with that re- 
spectful banter of the man of affairs towards the phi- 
losopher which he hked to indulge in, and calling Mr. 
Emerson to account for his attitude of an admiring 
listener to the wisdom of others at the meetings of the 
Overseers of Harvard College, instead of taking an 
active part in the debate. 

"Yet all this time his son was growing sicker and 
died a few days later." 

Many years later a third daughter died. 



( 



CHAPTER III 

DURING THE CIVIL WAR 

The Cabots had not been a race very strenuous in 
activities; the Jacksons, more laborious, were a serene 
and placid family; the Lees, impulsive and energetic, 
had shown more interest in public affairs, but had 
the conservatism natural to members of an upper and 
prosperous class. All had usually been what are called 
influential citizens, but devoid of political ambition. 
Only by going back to belligerent, contumacious, in- 
dependent Mistress Anne Hutchinson can we account 
for those cells in Colonel Lee's brain which made him 
a "radical," — the word is his own, and perhaps a trifle 
extravagant, though he justifies its use by saying that 
he had been promoting the formation of the Free Soil 
party during four years before it took actual shape, and 
that he "was one of the Vice-Presidents at the first 
meeting of the party in 1848, at which Governor Andrew 
served as President." With this political group he 
stayed until its absorption into the new organization of 
the Republican party. To his action at this time 
Colonel Lee repeatedly referred in subsequent years 
with much satisfaction. Thus, in a speech before a 
Civil Service Reform Association, he said: 



54 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" You, who have known the Republican party of the 
last twenty years, can hardly be made to know, much 
less to feel, how insignificant in numbers and standing 
seemed the Free Soilers when they seceded from the 
great Whig party, then panoplied with the respectabil- 
ity, the wealth and talent of New England. Words 
failed to express, looks or acts to convey, their (the 
Whigs') contempt, and the Democrats' hatred, of these 
few, young, obscure appealers to a higher law. It was 
a long contest, beginning openly in 18-48, and ended 
only by the breaking out of the Civil War. . . . The 
triumph of the Free Soilers, or Republicans, as they 
were subsequently called, was the slow triumph of pro- 
gression over retrogression, of resolution over irresolu- 
tion, of principle over policy, of the higher law over the 
lower law." 

By a natural sequence, when John A. Andrew en- 
tered upon the Governorship of Massachusetts, he 
nominated Henry Lee as one of his staff ; the commis- 
sion bears date January 15, 1861. Hence came the 
title of Colonel which seemed so appropriate that it 
ever after remained the familiar prefix to his name. 
When these aides, usually civilians, are suddenly 
honored by military titles, it is considered desirable 
that the choice should fall upon tall, handsome gentle- 
men, well set up physically, so that they may at least 
wear the ornate panoply of war with good effect. In 
these particulars Mr. Lee was well up to the standard. 
But Governor Andrew sought also other qualities in 
these decorative personages who were, in his shrewd 
opinion, likely to be called upon to sustain him in more 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 55 

difficult functions than attending dedications and sun- 
dry sorts of openings, and dancing at charity and other 
reputable balls. Nor was even the addition of efficiency 
in practical affairs sufficient; the governor must, if 
possible, connect himself with that portion of society 
which regarded itself as constituting an upper stratum. 
Governor Andrew now dwells in the serene atmosphere 
of apotheosis; the children of the men of Colonel Lee's 
generation have put him into Valhalla. But he seemed 
no candidate for such blissful quarters when he was 
elected governor. Boston's high society distrusted him 
as a fanatic, an enthusiast, a sentimentalist, a dreamer 
of dreams very objectionable in the peculiar circum- 
stances of the times. They doubted his practical good 
sense and deemed his election unfortunate for the 
country. What Governor Andrew in return thought 
about these high-placed persons is not recorded; but 
he was obliged to recognize that by their education and 
wealth, by their solidarity and by their ability and in- 
tegrity (regarding them en masse}, they were powerful. 
If trouble was brewing, he must seek sympathetic rela- 
tions with them. Accordingly he selected three men 
from their ranks, — Horace Binney Sargent, Harrison 
Ritchie and Henry Lee. Mr. Lee's family connec- 
tions were extensive, and were of excellent quality 
morally, intellectually and financially, as well as of 
ancient flavor socially. He was popular, respected for 
his character and esteemed for his abilities. Thus he 
was wisely selected ; but when he received the invita- 
tion, he hesitated. Though differing widely from most 
of his acquaintances in political convictions, he was not 



56 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

altogether free from their prejudices against the new 
governor. His own account, given many years later, 
is as follows: 

"Meeting the governor just after his election at a 
political levee I refrained from joining in the congratu- 
lations generally expressed, because 1 distrusted his 
fitness for the office at such a critical period. ... I 
was afraid he might be one-sided and indiscreet, defi- 
cient in common sense and practical ability. So when, 
in the first days of January, 1861, I unexpectedly re- 
ceived a summons to a position upon his staff, I was 
agitated by my desire to perform some little service for 
my country in the approaching crisis, and by my re- 
luctance to attach myself to a leader whose judgment I 
distrusted. After a frank explanation of my embar- 
rassment, finding that the governor still desired my 
aid, I reluctantly accepted the appointment." 

Work began at once. But it is needless to repeat 
the hundred-times-told tale of Governor Andrew's mili- 
tary preparations, the glory whereof has since been com- 
fortably adopted by Massachusetts as her own — by right 
of eminent domain, perhaps — whereas in fact nearly all 
Massachusetts derided and abused him at the time, and 
the glory was really as much his individual property as 
were his coat and hat. 

"For the moment," says Colonel Lee, "you had only 
to mention the word overcoat, or speak of 'kissing the 
musket, ' to excite the risibles or call down the objurga- 
tions of any of the scoffers, to whom these timely acts 
seemed the height of folly or wickedness." 

The Boston Post, then a conservative journal, ably 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 57 

conducted and illuminated with frequent sallies of the 
lively and oftentimes keen wit of the editor, Colonel 
Greene, was especially lavish of its sarcasm. Colonel 
Lee at last wrote to Colonel Greene, with whom his 
relations were personally friendly, protesting that the 
newspaper was going too far and was not giving the 
governor a fair chance ; whereupon the editor, who was 
a gentleman of good feeling, stayed his satiric pen, and 
gave the governor as much peace as could reasonably 
be expected on the part of an opponent. Later Colonel 
Lee gratefully paid this sheet the compliment of calling 
it " patriotic, " and praised its good temper and " stoi- 
cism " in the hours of the downfall of its party. 

The presentation of the muskets, relics of the battle 
of Lexhigton, bequeathed by Theodore Parker (who, 
by the way, had married a kinswoman of Colonel Lee), 
took place in the Representatives' Chamber. The gov- 
ernor's aides stood with him, and there was a great 
concourse. The governor was in a highly emotional 
condition. "That morning," he says, "as I was con- 
templating my own remarks ... I sat down, yielding 
to a perfect tempest of emotion, and wept as 1 had not 
done for years." In this frame of mind, just as he was 
handing the musket to the chairman, he raised it to 
his lips and kissed it! Colonel Lee admitted that 
spectators " felt cold chills run over " them, but said 
truly that " the fervor which was natural to him (the 
governor) and which burst forth at times in a way 
which made some of us who were fastidious shiver, 
was precisely what inspired and kindled the people." 
When Colonel Lee came home that evening, and, as 



58 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

was his habit, narrated to his wife the occurrences of 
the day, he said: "I could not have done that." 
"No," she replied, "Governor Andrew is a poet and 
you are not." Yet poetry is a dangerous weapon, and 
it was a chance whether the scene would live in history 
to excite sympathetic emotion or ridicule. Had Andrew 
later proved inefficient, or had there never been serious 
war, ridicule would have been enduring ; but as the oppo- 
site facts ensued, the excess of expression has been con- 
doned, if not altogether admired. 

Very soon the word overcoat ceased to seem so ex- 
ceedingly funny; and such are the mutations of human 
affairs, that the time actually came when the honor of 
the timely provision of this military raiment was claimed 
by General Butler, always ready to bind into his own 
sheaf any especially luxuriant stalk in the field. There- 
upon Colonel Lee kindly corrected the general, writ- 
ing to the editors of the Boston Daily Advertiser: 

"Returning from a journey, my attention has been 
called to a speech of General Butler. At a meeting 
of the Sixth Regiment on the 20th of April last, he 
claimed that he prevailed upon Governor Andrew to 
secure an appropriation for army overcoats in anticipa- 
tion of an appeal to arms. I beg to state that General 
Butler's advice upon this matter was neither asked nor 
received by Governor Andrew, and his first and last 
word was a request that a mill, in which he was a 
director, might manufacture the cloth for the overcoats." 

But this spurious claim was not to be forever laid to 
rest by a few lines in the corner of a news sheet. In 
history there can be but one truth, while possible 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 69 

blunders are countless. Whether the volume of false- 
hood injected by General Butler into the history of the 
Civil War period, and of Massachusetts in particular, 
will ever be utterly eliminated is fair cause for anxiety. 
In 1892 Rev. Edward Everett Hale published a volume 
which he called the "Story of Massachusetts." In this 
book, with easy carelessness as to facts, he gave to 
Butler the credit which belonged to Andrew, and there- 
by stirred anew the wrath of Colonel Lee. In a "com- 
munication " sent to the Nation, and embodied in an 
article in that paper (March 3, 1892), Colonel Lee cor- 
rected, with just severity, the blundering clergyman.^ 
Corrections in newspapers are all very well for the 
moment; but for future times they are lost in the 
newspaper ocean, while the book remains on the shelves 
of libraries to mislead later writers, and perhaps to be- 
come a "contemporary authority." 

During the first part of the year 1861 it could not 
have been altocfether agrreeable for Colonel Lee to meet 
his friends and acquaintances who, for the most part, 
were of the aforesaid " scoffers, " and who doubtless said 
"overcoat" and "musket" oftener than he liked to 
hear those suggestive words. He said afterwards: 

"Old acquaintances ceased to bow to the governor, 
or, what was more cutting, conveyed disapproval by 
austerity of manner. At Salem, whither the staff ac- 
companied him for the first visit of ceremony to witness 
an exhibition drill of the Salem Light Infantry^ their 
old aristocratic company, the past officers and members, 
leaders of society, though proud of their corps and 
^ See post, p. 176 et t^rq. 



60 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

eager to figure in the few festivities of the decaying 
town, sternly fasted, absented themselves, to express 
their extreme disapprobation of the governor and all 
his ways. It was characteristic of the old town as it 
would have been of Little Pedlington." 

In another place he wrote: "I recall the personal 
expression of surprise and regret from friends and ac- 
quaintances at my connection with this supposed foolish 
fanatic." 

In later years, speaking of the punishment which 
the well-to-do class visited upon these " come-outers, " 
Colonel Lee said: "For Richard H. Dana it meant a 
great deal to join the Free Soilers; he was a lawyer, 
and was likely to lose his best clients and injure himself 
seriously. But I was in business, and I did not care." 

This comparison was generously to the credit of his 
comrade, for the social cold shoulder is not pleasant, 
and Colonel Lee deserved his share of credit, even 
though he could continue to do business, and though 
his temper, his spirit and his wit made it awkward 
for any man to treat him with incivility. This dis- 
position of "society " towards the men of the new party 
found its stronghold in the Somerset Club, the "swell" 
club of Boston, — a social vessel filled to the brim with 
finely ancient and eminently aristocratic conservatism. 
To it Mr. Lee would naturally have belonged, by his 
connections, but he never applied for membership, and 
soon after the outbreak of the war he was one of the 
prominent founders of the Union Club, which signi- 
fied by its name its purpose of serving as the social 
gathering-place of the loyalist party. Of this he was for 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 61 

many years the president, and afterwards, for many more 
years, did good service on the election committee. 

In the middle of April came the President's call for 
troops, seventy-five thousand of the militia ; and it was 
a proud day for Massachusetts when she was found to 
be the best prepared state at the North to respond. 
Colonel Lee was detailed to arrange means for trans- 
portation, which he was able to do chiefly by the effi- 
cient aid of his friend, John M. Forbes. Within a day 
or two the troops were streaming into Boston; arms, 
munitions and equipment were collected in the " Doric 
Hall " of the State House, and the soldiers halted on 
Mount Vernon Street to receive these supplies. All 
was bustle and haste ; in the allotment of duties, " on 
the 16th of April, 1861," says Colonel Lee, "I was 
deputed by Governor Andrew to receive and provide 
for the militia summoned to the rescue of Washington 
and the defence of Fort Monroe." ^ In a pencilled note 
to Mrs. Lee her husband said: "I was from 9:00 A.M. 
till 10:00 P.M. feeding, quartering, and looking after 
the 1400 troops thus suddenly thrown into Boston, and 
when at six o'clock I seized a hunk of bread and meat 
from the soldiers' table, I was as tired and hungry as 
a tiger." 

In his reminiscences he wrote : 

"Early Tuesday morning four regiments reported, 
marching in sleet and rain. From that hour till the 
dawn of Sunday, the 21st of April, we all had to 

1 Pearson's " Life of John A. Andrew," 1, 183. " As company after 
company marched up," says Mr. Pearson, in his excellent volume, 
" Ritchie and Lee superintended the distribution and inspected each 
man to see that his outfit was complete." 



62 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

work night and day, and, assuming the roles of armor- 
ers, quartermasters, commissaries, to obtain from raw 
officers the lists of arms, clothing, equipments and 
rations required; to collect and distribute, or pack 
'' and forward and invoice these, to organize a Medical 
Board, to examine surgeons and provide them with 
their instruments and supplies, to engage steamers and 
railroads to transport the troops, and finally to accom- 
pany the governor as he presented to them the stand- 
ards under which they were sent forth and spoke words 
of encouragement and thanks. It is wonderful that 
the preparations were so complete considering the raw- 
ness of all. It was the pressure that did it." Very 
soon organization was brought into better shape, and 
each aide undertook service in special lines. Colonel 
Lee says : " One of the greatest difficulties that the 
governor had to meet was the selection of officers. He 
used to say that he did not ask how much a man knew, 
but how much he could learn. No one knew anything 
in those days, no one had any experience ; it was only 
a question of choosing the best material out of which 
good officers could be made. The best officers we 
found were the quiet, patriotic men of education and 
ability, who would never have become soldiers from 
choice, but who now offered their services from a simple 
sense of duty. A man asked for a position as quarter- 
master on the strength of his having belonged to the 
band. A Senator headed his recommendation paper, 
but declared in confidence that the man amounted to 
nothing and should not have any commission. So 
letters of recommendation had to be scrutinized." 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 63 

In this department Colonel Lee was of the greatest 
use. Applications for commissions poured in; espe- 
cially was there a rush by the young men of the old 
Boston families, by recent Harvard graduates, and by 
several undergraduates. The governor knew almost 
none of these, and was entirely at a loss as to their 
qualifications. Colonel Lee, on the other hand, knew 
many of them personally, had abundant means of ob- 
taining information as to others, and at worst could 
often venture a guess on the ground of heredity; for 
if he did not know the individual, he was quite likely 
to know all about his ancestors. So the joke ran that 
he would often say to the governor: "I don't know the 
youngster, but his grandfather was a first-rate captain 
at Louisburg;" or, "the son of this man's father ought 
to be about fit for a second-lieutenancy," and so on. 
What he knew or thought, he spoke out with his 
habitual directness. "Colonel," said the governor one 
day, " what do you say to my appointing quarter- 
master in the Regiment?" "I say you shan't 

do it. Governor." "Why not?" "You know as well 
as L" "No one of us is perfect." "No, but some are 
nearer to it than others. That man is a damned thief, 
and you have no business to put him in charge of 
Uncle Sam's property." On another occasion he said: 
" Governor, my time is yours ; my character is my own : 
and unless you drive off some of these scallywags, I 
shall leave you. You are so concerned about the 
wicked, that you have no heart for an honest man." 

Colonel Lee took the warmest personal interest in 
the young men whom he thus studied, valued, and 



64 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

introduced to their military career. The officers of 
the 20th Regiment, which was in the initial engage- 
ment at Ball's Bluff, he always called "his boys," with 
a special affection. The deaths and the wounds among 
them moved him deeply. This letter, written some- 
what later to Mrs. Kemble, well shows the keenness 
of his feeling: 

"My dear Mrs. Kemble: — 

" At last you have unburdened your great generous 
heart and have done us more good by your eloquent 
letters than all the writers who have argued with or 
railed against your confounded old John Bulls since the 
Rebellion burst forth. 

" You don't know, — as we are not aware until some 
generous recognition of our true positions melts us, — in 
what a state of tension we are existing. Truly our 
lives have grown haggard with excitement ; every family 
you know, as well as thousands you do not, has sent 
forth its sons to the war, and in almost every family 
is a vacant chair and a portrait upon the wall, of the 
husband or the darling son gone forever. 

" In my own family, my only brother left six children 
and their mother to lead his regiment, and with him 
went my wife's brother Edward, and Charles Dabney, 
whom you know. They were besieged in Washington, 
North Carolina, for twenty days by over ten times 
their number, my brother Commandant of the Fort 
with 1200 men and three gunboats to defend it, and 
I had the ghastly honor of hearing his death hawked 
about the streets by the newsboys; but a merciful 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 65 

Providence at last rescued them and they are safe at 
home once more, their hour of service over. Two of 
my brothers-in-law are still in service, one of my four 
nephews, Henry Higginson, Major of Cavalry, is just 
off his bed, having recovered from two sabre cuts on 
his head, and had a ball extracted from his backbone, 
which the rebels fired at him as he lay on the ground. 
His brother James came back from Berlin, where he 
had been studying, was taken prisoner at the same 
battle,^ where he was leading his company, and has 
lain in Libby Prison since the 17th of June. 

"Frank Higginson, a young senior from Harvard, 
was the oldest officer but one in Bob Shaw's regiment 
after the bloody assault on Fort Wagner. Cabot Russell, 
my cousin, one of my brother Frank's sergeants, later 
a captain in Shaw's regiment, was wounded or killed 
at the same assault, for we cannot learn of his fate 
from the rebels into whose hands he fell. Wendell 
Holmes, another cousin, has been wounded three times 
and has risen by 'death and promotion ' from lieutenant 
to lieutenant-colonel. 

"James Lowell, another delicate little lamb, was 
severely wounded at Ball's Bluff and killed at Mal- 
vern Hill, a Christian martyr; his brother Charles 
commands our Second Cavalry and will command our 
army if the war lasts long. Their sister, a delicate 
frail young girl, has been for nearly two years a nurse 
in a Washington hospital, and their mother spends 
her days at the Sanitary Commission, as do many of 
our matrons and young girls. 

1 Aldie Gap. 
5 



66 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" Another young cousin, Sumner Paine, was killed at 
Gettysburg, a young lieutenant whom I had just got 
placed ; his brother led a brigade in the two bloody as- 
saults on Port Hudson, and has come home for a time 
with chills and fever. 

" Of our little theatrical troupe at the Cabots, Paul 
Revere, the most gallant Hercules that ever breathed, 
after many wounds and illnesses, poured out his life 
at Gettysburg; his brother, a surgeon, was killed at 
Antietam, both leaving widows and orphans. Dick 
Gary made his wife a widow at Cedar Mountain, where 
also fell another of my wife's cousins, Stephen Perkins. 
Another cousin, Charles Cabot, left his watch and ring 
and parting message with his servant and led his com- 
pany over the bridge at Fredericksburg, and never re- 
turned, Howard Dwight, our low comedian, was killed 
by guerillas who swarmed near Port Hudson; his 
brother Wilder at Antietam; Willie Forbes is Major 
under Charles Lowell and a splendid fellow he is. 
Theodore Lyman, our eccentric comedian, has returned 
from Europe and left his wife and child to go upon 
General Meade's staff. 

" This very day I have written two letters to express 
ray vain sympathy with the fathers of two young sol- 
diers, both of them, like Putnam and Lowell, scholars 
and gentle youths who, after struggling against malaria 
and exposure and wounds, have fallen, one in an attack 
on the rifle pits of Fort Wagner and the other killed 
by the murderous host at Vicksburg. 

" In one of our Massachusetts regiments there are but 
half a dozen of the forty officers who composed the 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 67 

roster at first, and as 1 have acted as a sort of militaiy 
midwife, presiding at their birth, and have held fre- 
quent intercourse with them and their families, have 
known their motives and their wealth of mind and 
heart and attainments, I have felt their deaths keenly, 
knowing how costly was the sacrifice. Of course they 
are not lost, thrown away, for they have, with hardly 
an exception, so discharged their duties as to have ful- 
filled the hopes of their families and their country, 
leaving bright examples, if no heirs begotten of the 
body. It is maddening, then, to read some of the Eng- 
lish denunciations of our army, to learn that these 
young heroes are the 'scum of the earth.' . . . 

" The mail had gone, so let me add a few lines to re- 
deem, if possible, the horrid death-rattle of my letter. I 
have catalogued, — 1 have not conveyed the state of 
feeling here. With the exception of a few over-rich, 
and of the vanishing party of peace Democrats among 
whom are Hillard and Winthrop (not avowedly, but 
really, — not positively, but negatively), the whole 
population of New England and of the North are more 
sternly resolved every day, in spite of love of life and 
consequent affliction, to prosecute the war till slavery 
is extinguished, undismayed by increasing taxes and 
enormous contributions to Sanitary Commissions, Sol- 
diere' Funds of a hundred varieties, undiscouraged 
by the repeated failure of our generals whom Lord 
Palmerston, for once his temper overcoming his tact, 
when England was rejoicing at the anticipated triumph 
of Lee in Pennsylvania, ridiculed superciliously. 

" And our hour of victory seems to have arrived — 



68 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Gettysburg have been fol- 
lowed this week by Knoxville, which cuts the railroad 
from West to East, and to-day Morris Island, which 
assures us Charleston; and our news from Tennessee 
and North Carolina assures us of two more free states ; 
and every southern journal confirms the stories of the 
great numbers of dissensions and defections through- 
out the South. 

" God, in his mercy, has prolonged the war till con- 
viction of the incompatibility of freedom and slavery, 
of the descending and the ascending, the demoralizing 
and the elevating systems of society, has reached the 
minds and hearts of our people. 

" You long ago noticed the phenomenon of the superi- 
ority of our people to their government, or rather to 
the representatives of the government; the comparison 
still holds good; the people have been in advance of 
their nominal leaders, although the President is honest 
and sagacious and courageous; still, like Sir Robert 
Peel, he rather waits till the policy is pointed out by 
popular clamor than anticipates remotely. But, like 
Peel and Cavour, such a man carries through a re- 
form more successfully than a Garibaldi or a Wendell 
Phillips. It is a consolation to feel that Abraham has 
no sinister, no selfish designs; that he earnestly en- 
deavors to carry out the will of the nation. 

"As to England, you must feel, all the more that you 
are so intensely patriotic, as do Mill and Newman and 
Cairnes and Hughes and Bright, though you would 
call the last * shy. ' England, from selfish stupidity, 
has lost her best friend and ally, from aristocratic out- 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 69 

weighing moral and intellectual sympathies — her pres- 
ent commercial loves blinding her to future gains — has 
repudiated her anti-slavery philanthropy, with which 
she deluged us for so many years, has feebly kept her 
international faith, and has so equally disgusted North 
and South, not by her neutrality, but by her selfish- 
ness, that there would be no surer bond between our 
two sections than a declaration of war. The feeling of 
hatred is not general, it is universal; it is not super- 
ficial, it fills the heart. 

" I pray for the sake of our broken families, for the 
sake of our heavily burdened people, that the wise men 
of England will direct and the good men will influence 
your government to remember the Golden Rule and 
carry out honestly their Foreign Enlistment Act, as 
we have done under greater trials in their behalf; for, 
if not, war must come and a fearful war it will be, one 
in which all here will enlist, cost what it may. 

" You know well the Shaws, and perhaps you know 
what a lovely, manly, modest young soldier Bob Shaw 
was. I spent an hour with him on board the steamer — 
the hour before he sailed. I was the last to shake 
hands with him, and I carried his farewell to his 
mother. His ready acceptance of a command so ques- 
tionable in the eyes of many, with all its additional 
dangers, the simplicity of his manner, his unconscious 
heroism, his almost immediate death, — all combined 
to wring the heart more than the loss of others who 
fall in the common course of their career." 

Mrs. Kemble's reply evinces her generous sym- 
pathy : 



70 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" My dear Harry Lee — by which friendly and af- 
fectionate title I address you, the rather that I have 
forgotten your present military dignity and think the 
above will always designate you most pleasantly to 
your friends. I have to thank you for a most interest- 
ing letter, as painful, alas, as it is interesting, con- 
taining a sad catalogue of names associated to me with 
pleasant friendly memories, and which henceforward 
will call up heroic and pathetic memories of your great 
national agony whenever I hear their sound. 

"You are right, my dear Sir, in saying that I love 
and honor Massachusetts, and hold, as I have ever 
held, the New England States to be the very pith and 
marrow, heart and brain of the great empire of which 
they form a part. I need not tell you that I have 
followed with my fervent prayers every turn of the 
momentous struggle in which your country is now en- 
gaged; and tho' the price of precious life at which 
your national regeneration is being bought has wrung 
my heart with the deepest sympathy, I have believed 
the costly sacrifice to betoken the inestimable value 
of what it is to win for you; nor am 1 alone among 
English people in so thinking and feeling. Therefore, 
I feel grieved and troubled that men like 3'ourself 
should speak of England as you do. The people of 
England have never for an instant gone with the wrong 
side of your national quarrel ; the government of Eng- 
land has acted, in my opinion, with the utmost fairness 
and consistency towards you. A portion of our press, 
especially the ablest paper we have, — The Times — 
have done the devil's service to the best of their ability 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 71 

in the matter, and our aristocracy has done according 
to the natural law of its existence, and sympathised 
with those whose social status it could best compre- 
hend. Nor must you forget that in the conduct of 
the war and in such political action as the pseudo gov- 
ernment of the South has exercised, great bravery and 
great ability have been shown, courage and capacity 
worthy of the best cause. I, who abhor their cause, 
have admired their conduct of it, and for persons as 
ignorant as the mass of upper-class English people are 
of everything concerning your country and her present 
tribulations, you should not wonder that there has been 
an utter confusion of the motives of the struggle. Do 
not, I entreat you, add one grain of bitterness to the 
ill will which mutual ignorance alone can prolong be- 
tween Englishmen and Americans, and above all, do 
not make it appear that the latter allow the contemp- 
tuous ignorance and indifference of a mere caste to out- 
weigh the zeal and honest sympathy of the nation; for 
if you do, I for one shall hold that you justify your 
English descent and are the snobs that our snobbish 
lords and ladies consider you. . . . Meantime God 
bless your cause and give you in the regeneration of 
your noble country the only adequate compensation 
for all your losses and all your griefs." 

As appears by these letters, Colonel Lee like most 
Northerners, was hurt and angered by the behavior of 
English statesmen and of the English press. He had 
been "an old subscriber of eleven years' standing" to 
the London Spectator, "but by the end of 1861 (he) 
was so wounded by its insolent criticisms that (he) gave 



72 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

it up and never read a line of it afterward." A year 
earlier, in November, 1860, when our troubles were 
already casting their shadows before, he had sent to 
that weekly a letter which, by connection of topic, may 
perhaps be properly enough inserted here : 

"For ten years a subscriber to the Spectator, I 
have perused your lucubrations upon many subjects, 
and it is perhaps fair that you should reciprocate by 
reading this letter. 

"Like all Englishmen, you do sometimes misunder- 
stand us Americans ; we are to you a nation of bores ; 
as Sam Slick expresses it: 'You don't know nothing 
about us, and what 's a darned sight worse, you don't 
care nothing about us,' while we care enough about 
you to understand and make some allowance even for 
this imperfect sympathy. 

" Utterly indifferent to the opinion of the rest of the 
world, we are sensitive to the criticisms of our English 
brethren, and certainly animadversions and aspersions 
enough have been made by your travelling countrymen 
to establish a *raw.' 

" Full of curiosity and affection, we go, pilgrims to 
our fatherland, knowing you all and your fathers before 
you by your Christian names. We meet with an em- 
brace ? — no, with a gentleman who stutters forth that 
'we have the advantage of him,' and who stares through 
an eye-glass. No enthusiasm can survive this rebuff; 
and, foregoing our native English, we hasten to lands 
where we care not for cordiality, and where civility 
and amusement can be purchased. We go away, like 
poor relations, our hearts aching with disappointment. 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 73 

"This coldness is to be attributed partly to your 
natural superciliousness, which offends your European 
neighbors as it does us, and your unreasonable require- 
ments as to the non-essentials of etiquette; partly to 
the bad manners of many of our nouveaux riches, who 
make the grand tour ; but principally to your compara- 
tive indifference to and ignorance of us, which wears 
away slowly as you travel more in this direction, and 
as we grow more interesting. 

" But to this favor you must come ; blood is thicker 
than water, as one of our brave captains strikingly 
proved on a late occasion ; we yearn towards you, and, 
isolated as you are in Europe, with no natural alliances, 
no sympathies with despotic governments and alien 
races, you must turn from those wearisome entangle- 
ments and strengthen the ties with your kinsmen on 
this side of the ocean, who, side by side with you, may 
meet the world in arms." 

Years passed, and brought to Colonel Lee the oppor- 
tunity, of which he availed himself, to " rejoice at the 
evolution of fraternal feeling" and that his "prophecy 
. . . had at last come true." 

In literary labor of another kind Colonel Lee was 
not so successful as altogether to escape criticism. 
The governor's correspondence was enormous, and 
though most of it was undertaken by the other aides, 
Colonel Lee was occasionally pressed into the service. 
His pen, however, knew no more restraint than his 
tongue ; and written words, not interpreted by manner, 
voice or expression, and seeming more deliberately 
chosen, carry greater offence than the winged words 



74 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

of speech. The perturbation which followed sundry of 
Colonel Lee's epistolary efforts induced the good-natured 
governor to dub him "the unfortunate letter- wri ter, " — 
while at the same time always loyally standing by him 
in his most brusque effusions. Brusque enough some 
of them must have been, if many are to be judged by 
this paragraph written to a major of a regiment : " Your 
Colonel insults the governor and oppresses his officers ; 
he thinks that he wields a two-edged sword, whereas 
in fact it is a boomerang." 

In the autumn of 1861 there was a very disagreeable 
clash betweeen the governor and General Butler as to 
the enlisting of two regiments and the commissioning 
of their officers. Butler astutely gained the backing 
of the President and the War Department; but the 
governor, impregnably entrenched behind the law, re- 
fused to budge. It was a complex, prolonged and most 
uncomfortable quarrel. Already Colonel Lee had ac- 
quired the feeling of personal loyalty; and, being in 
Washington, he there took the governor's part with 
characteristic heartiness, writing to Andrew that he 
had learned "that Butler is here for the express pur- 
pose of abusing you and making misstatements," and 
that therefore he himself had called on the President in 
order "to present simultaneously counter testimony." 
"The President expressed his regret at the want of 
concert between your Excellency and General Butler, 
. . . but inferred that the want of encouragement to 
General Butler was owing to a personal dislike, whereas 
I contended that the President's own declaration to 
me . . . was strong presumptive evidence in your favor 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 75 

and against Butler. ... To sum up, the President said 
that the alternative presented by me was to crush Butler 
or to prevail upon your Excellency to forgive him and 
to commission his officers." It was in the course of 
this interview that the President said : " Then, Colonel 
Lee, you mean to say that I lie?" "No, sir, I mean 
no such thing." " Then you mean that General Butler 
lies?" "That is precisely what I mean." Now the 
President and the War Department were loath to " crush 
Butler," and were most desirous to see the governor 
forget and forgive, and therefore the arguments of 
Colonel Lee were very distasteful. It is not every 
man who can speak freely to a president, but evidently 
Colonel Lee did so, and perhaps thought that he had 
transcended prudence, for he wrote that, at his request, 
Attorney-General Foster " was presenting to the Presi- 
dent in a more quiet and convincing manner than I am 
master of, the confusion brought upon us by General 
Butler's mode of recruiting, during which conversation 
the President remarked that General Butler was cross- 
eyed and he supposed he did n't see things as other peo- 
ple did." To the assistant-secretary of war Colonel 
Lee promised "to communicate to you (Andrew) at 
once the desire of the department," and said that he 
would not " add that they had caught an elephant and did 
not know what to do with him, whereat the assistant- 
secretary smiled." But anyone who hoped that Gov- 
ernor Andrew would obligingly aid in disposing of 
Elephant Butler by a process of submission little knew 
the disposition of the "War Governor." He persisted 
and he won. The storj^ at its length, finds its proper 



76 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

place in the governor's biography where it is well told 
by Mr. Peareon; while those who wish to read the 
other side will find it in that veracious chronicle 
ycleped: "Butler's Own Book." 

After the engagement at Ball's Bluff Colonel Lee 
went to Virginia to attend to the wants of the two 
Massachusetts regiments, which had suffered severely, 
especially the Twentieth. It was his first observation 
of real bloodshed, and he was deeply moved. Later 
his brother Francis went as colonel and his brother- 
in-law, Edward C. Cabot, as lieutenant-colonel, of 
the Forty-Fourth Regiment, and Colonel Lee accom- 
panied them to New Berne and stayed there some little 
time. But he saw no engagement and knew little of 
the real hardships of war upon this trip. In a speech 
which he made at the 150th anniversary of the foun- 
dation of the First Corps of Cadets, M.V.M., he 
told them that in 1778 the corps "was ordered, 
with the rest of the militia, to Newport to aid General 
Sullivan. . . . They reached the field of battle on 
Sunday and General Sullivan placed them in a rather 
prominent position, when one of the aides rode up to 
him and said: 'General Sullivan, do you know what 
you have done? Why, if one of those young men 
got killed, it would put half Boston into mourning! ' 
Consequently he withdrew them to a safer distance." 
The fortune of war was almost as considerate towards 
the Forty-Fourth Regiment, though the Cadets in the 
Revolution and the Forty-Fourth in the Civil War 
were of course quite ready for all the fighting which 
might fall to their lot, and many members of the 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 77 

Forty-Fourth served afterwards and saw bloodshed 
enough. 

Colonel Lee's service as aide exacted prolonged labor 
on his part, and a sacrifice of time which was greatly 
to the detriment of the many private interests en- 
trusted to him. Accordingly, after three and one- 
half years, when matters were in such train that he 
felt free to leave, he offered his resignation. In doing 
so he wrote to the governor this letter: 

" My dear Governor : — 

"Your note of the 7th reached me to-night in this 
remote region where I have been tending a sick child 
the past few days. I was very much touched by the 
very kind tone of your note and the expressions of 
confidence and affection conveyed to me. 

" When my engagement was announced by my mother 
to the talented but somewhat eccentric Mrs. Eliza 
Buckminster Lee, that lady expressed a regret, as she 
thought the Lees were too rough to be husbands. I 
have had frequent occasion to recall that remark to 
my wife, and I think you may possibly appreciate it 
when you remember me as a former aide-de-camp. On 
the other hand, I know I have been honest; I did for 
nearly two years serve you with a devotion which so 
deranged my affairs that I have been obliged since 
then to withdraw very much more from you than is 
convenient to you, or consistent with my own sense of 
propriety. 

"My father is very old, ... I have always for 
twenty-seven years managed all his affairs, and I have 



78 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

numerous family and other trusts which I cannot neg- 
lect. My family is so large, my wife's health so deli- 
cate, that I am never sure of fulfilling an engagement, 
and this mortifies and distresses me. 

"I feel a very sincere attachment to you; I appre- 
ciate very highly the zeal and great ability you have 
developed in carrying, — lugging along — the state 
through this great crisis; I admire still more your 
entire disinterestedness, and I shall always be as now, 

" Your devoted friend, 

"Henry Lee, Jr." 

The governor accepted the resignation on the follow- 
ing day, June 9, 1864, with many friendly words. 

In 1865, the war being over, the fatigue incident to the 

highly wrought public interest had its natural effect in a 

temporary reaction. The behavior of the people was like 

that which is seen at the theatre two or three minutes 

before the curtain falls, when the departing audience 

turns its back upon the actors. This greatly irritated 

Colonel Lee and called forth his eloquent protests, 

addressed, as usual in those days, to the Boston Daily 

Advertiser : 

" October 30, 1865. 

" How galling it must be to the feelings of our gal- 
lant volunteers, who have returned to their native state 
after years of toil, hardships and unparalleled priva- 
tions, not to speak of dangers and sufferings, to witness 
the ovations and enthusiastic public receptions given 
to the Boston Lancers after their ten days' campaign in 
Chicago. 

"Verily, our people are highly inconstant! Here is 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 79 

a company who for mere pleasure — to gratify a whim 
and their sense of ostentation — journey, by invitation, 
to a town some hundreds of miles distant; they are feted 
and feasted and made much of; on their return their 
fellow-citizens think fit and proper to give them a 
public reception worthy of heroes. 

"Yet it is but a few weeks since that I witnessed, 
from the steps of the State House, the return of the 
Second Regiment, Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. This 
regiment had served with marked distinction on several 
occasions during the war, had throughout the rebellion 
evinced a high sense of patriotism, had borne without 
flinching privations and dangers without number, and 
in the end returned with a character for steadiness never 
surpassed by any organization in the countiy. It will 
hardly be credited by other than eye-witnesses that this 
regiment, during their march through Boston, from the 
Providence Depot to Commercial Wharf, where they 
embarked for Gallop's Island, did not receive a single 
cheer, not an expression of sympathy, not one joy- 
ful greeting; not a handkerchief was waved, no tear 
dropped; — whilst the Boston Lancers, after a ten days' 
campaign against prairie hens and Bourbon whiskey, 
return and find themselves greeted as heroes and 
patriots. 

"Our Volunteers are by no means jealous of the 
honors so readily showered on the Lancers, but decid- 
edly think that their fellow-citizens have not shown 
a nice sense of discrimination in their distribution of 
favors and public receptions since the collapse of the re- 
bellion and the return home of the State Volunteers." 



80 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Again, a few days later, he wrote in like strain: 

" ' But what went ye out for to see ? A man clothed in 
soft raiment?' 

"An orator has said that 'the only debt the United 
States can never pay is that we owe to our brave Vol- 
unteers. ' Is this a figure of speech, or does the obliga- 
tion lie too deep in our hearts to find utterance ? As 
the shattered remnants of our regiments, veterans from 
the armies of Grant or Sherman, 

With lank, lean cheeks, and war-worn coats, 
Their gayness and their gilt now all besmirched 
With rainy marching in the painful field, 

have passed through our streets unheeded, or been 
suffered to straggle home from Readville or Gallop's 

Island, and 

No man cried, God save them ; 
No joyful tongue gave them their welcome home ; 

that welcome so fondly looked for, to homes that had 
been saved by their self-imposed renunciation, their 
prolonged sacrifice ; the hearts of these weary and dis- 
appointed men must have been chilled by the stony 
apathy of a people saved, so in contrast with the fer- 
vent acclamations and abundant promises showered upon 
them by a people imperilled, as they marched away. 
Had they returned to find themselves, like Rip Van 
Winkle, forgotten among another generation, or are 
republics ungrateful ? 

"I confess when I read in last week's journals, how 
a few meandering citizens dubbed 'M. W. G. M.' 'Sir 
Knights,' were received by some Boston Sir Knights 
with the same profuse alphabetical prefixes, how they 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 81 

were waylaid in every street and collated till at last 
they brought up at our State Prison fairly suffocated 
and exhausted, eager to find an asylum even there, and 
when I read of the grand reception of the Lancers after 
a week's junketing at Chicago — two or three bands of 
music, as many corps of militia, a collation and speeches 
at Faneuil Hall — I could not but ask: 'What have 
these city train-bands, these self-styled Sir Knights 
achieved, that they should be so boisterously welcomed 
and feasted within an inch of their lives, while our real 
knights are left to grope their way home, hungry and 
tired, unrequited for all their toils and perils by even 
a greeting ? 

Wherefore rejoice ? What conquests bring they home ? 
Why do you now cull out a holiday ? 
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, 
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague 
That needs must light on this ingratitude." 

About the same time, not losing his habit of advis- 
ing the governor, he wrote to him this characteristic 
letter: 

" My dear Governor : — 

"As you take a paternal interest in my efforts in 
behalf of the militia, I enclose a piece which may have 
escaped your notice, in which I attempt to express my 
deep dismay at the negligence or pusillanimity of the 
Legislature in abandoning the system of compulsory 
service, and also at the falling to pieces of the Second 
Regiment owing to this sneaking legislation, and also 
at the delay of the state to uniform them. 

6 



82 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" We have never raised, and shall never in our life- 
time raise, a regiment so well composed and officered, 
consequently so well disciplined. The principal officers, 
many of the lesser officers, are men just from actual 
service. 

" I attribute this suicidal policy to the Banksy, tricky, 
shilly-shally character of our law makers ; and the delay 
as to uniforms to the equally low and tricky quarter- 
master general of this state. 

" My dear Governor, if the Lord forgives knaves, he is 
equally forgiving to honest men ; why will you therefore 

surround yourself with P and S and W and 

a host of others to your great moral and mental wool- 
gathering and to the disgust of your friends, who are 
at least indifferent honest? I fear this bad appoint- 
ment, when you had a state full of honorable disabled 
officei-s to select an Inspector General from, has cost 
us our militia and you a benefaction you might have left 
on going out of an office you have filled so gloriously in 
spite of your crazy optimism. 

" Your old blackguard, 

"H. L., Jr." 

Colonel Lee's loyalty to the Volunteers, and his untir- 
ing services in their behalf, were handsomely recognized 
by them later, when they placed him in the small and 
carefully selected list of Civilian Members of the " Mili- 
tary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States," 
in the Commandery of the State of Massachusetts. It 
should, however, be said in this connection that his 
indignation was bitter against the men who came out 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 83 

from civil life to demand and accept high military com- 
mands and responsibilities, for which their knowledge 
and experience did not fit them. There is one paper 
called "Militia Brigadiers: Banks' Statue," in which 
he says: 

" No man of self-respect or humanity would have ac- 
cepted such an impossible task as that of an untaught, 
heaven-born Major-General ; and if he had, any con- 
scientious man would have resigned after the wanton 
slaughter at Cedar Mountain, and would have peniten- 
tially started again, as did all our best youths, ere they 
essayed to expose those under them to wounds and cap- 
ture and death by their ignorance." Of the "incom- 
petent generals" he said: "Banks and Butler were 
flagrant instances. ... I have known Banks ever since 
he was apprenticed to a hatter in Waltham, and knew 
every step in his career, and I agree with Thaddeus 
Stevens, who said there was nothing remarkable about 
him except the ' wabble in his voice '." Again he spoke 
of one of his acquaintance, " whose only son was mur- 
dered by General Banks at Cedar Mountain, with five 
other braves." 

Mr. Lee's love of things military began in childhood, 
but did not pass with that period. In college he had 
taken the liveliest interest in the Harvard Washington 
Corps, a military company maintained by the students 
at a really high grade of excellence. As a young man 
he joined the Independent Corps of Cadets, of which 
he was a member and an officer for many years. Later 
the Veteran Association of the Independent Corps of 



84 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Cadets voted that the thanks of the Association "be 
tendered to Colonel Henry Lee for his valuable and 
efficient services while in the Legislature, in procuring 
for the Association an Act of Incorporation." 

On January 29, 18-11, Governor John Davis issued 
to him a commission as second lieutenant of a company 
of light infantry in the First Regiment of Light In- 
fantry in the First Brigade and First Division of the 
Militia of the Commonwealth; and on December 28th 
of the same year he was promoted to a first lieutenancy. 
George Tyler Bigelow, afterwards Chief Justice of Mas- 
sachusetts, was the colonel. 

The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company is 
now a somewhat grotesque portion of the military force 
of our Commonwealth. But the time was when it 
could be taken seriously; and in both its serious and 
its humorous aspect it was interesting and picturesque 
for Colonel Lee. One of his children says: "Father 
never missed Artillery Election ; he never came out of 
town till it was all over, no matter how late it was." 
This queer organization called forth one of his delight- 
ful bits of vivid, entertaining reminiscence : 

"We dwelt in town winter and summer, and here 
were all our resources; so Artillery Election, one of the 
three holidays of the year, was a great occasion ; peo- 
ple flocked to see the governor in full uniform take his 
seat on the Common and commission the officers of the 
Ancient and Plonorable Artillery Company, and great 
was the interest to know who was the new commander. 

" There hangs in my library the full length portrait 
of one of the first generation of Puritans, five times 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 85 

commander of this old company, ^ while others of my 
kin have handled the pike or have been decorated with 
the gorget and intrusted with the espontoon in the 
colonial days. 

" So it is natural that, as the season comes round, I 
should feel an unwonted stir in my blood, and that, in 
spite of old age and some lack of sympathy with the 
present composition of this overgrown heterogeneous 
body, the somewhat speckled military contingent sup- 
plemented by a legion of jury-shirking merchants and 
brokers, — notwithstanding this intrusion of the pre- 
sent, I find myself in the crowd pondering over the 
past. 

" There stands my ancestor in his buff leather coat, 
his silver-hilted sword hangs from an embroidered bal- 
dric over his shoulder, his collars and cuffs are likewise 
embroidered, his truncheon is in his gloved hand. In 
the middle distance soldiers drawn up in line are dip- 
ping their flags, while vessels just off shore are firing 
a salute. These are the men I seem to see mustering 
in the Town House, marching into the Common to go 
through their evolutions, and concluding with prayer, 
listening to the reverend divine's sermon, to his open- 
ing and closing prayer, and after dinner singing four 
staves of the 68th Psalm, followed by the 9th and 
11th verses of the 2d Psalm; or perhaps complain- 
ing that there has been too much singing, for even at 
that time the members were not all saints. 

" In my early days there were still some old soldiers 
in the ranks, the sight of whom conjured up the heroes 
1 Major Thomas Savage. 



86 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

of the Revolution, who followed in the footsteps of 
their colonial and provincial ancestors and fostered the 
institution. Lincoln, Knox, Heath, Brooks, and some 
of their less noted associates served in the ranks or 
accepted the command of the Ancients. 

" I am one of the few who can remember the old blue 
coat with red collar, cuffs and lapels, silver buttons, a 
half-moon chapeau de bras with a tall white plume, 
white cassimere breeches and long black gaiters; and 
a very handsome uniform it was, and with their hair 
powdered and queued they looked distinguished. But 
the stately uniform was only worn by a few veterans, 
for, in order to fill up their depleted ranks, the Ancients 
voted to allow every member (they were mostly then 
officers in the militia) to parade in his own uniform; 
hence the motley which has ever since existed. 

" How to partake most fully of the festivities of the 
holiday, how to economize our time and money, exer- 
cised us boys. In the early morning we paid a visit to 
the Common, we treated to a glass of ginger beer from 
the sable proprietor of one of the row of white-hooded, 
squash-colored hand-carts ranged along in front of the 
great elm. Then we went to see how Paddy Rowan, our 
old scouring-woman's boy, was getting along with our 
peep-show, which it had taken us a fortnight to build 
and decorate, and which we had intrusted to him to 
exhibit. Then to the tents which covered the hill, 
some of them, we fear, 'the tents of wickedness,' to 
spend our little fairings upon candy and election buns, a 
cent or two to the Indian shooting with bow and arrow at 
a mark, and as many more to enter the Camera Obscura. 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 87 

" There goes Fillebrown, the captain of the Brigade 
Band, with his clarionet under his arm, and there plods 
along a little militia captain, his long white plume 
tipped with red nodding as he walks, his bell-crowned 
cap, his bob-tailed blue coat with three rows of silver 
buttons and his cotton gloves, altogether a meagre uni- 
form. They are bound to Faneuil Hall, and we must 
follow if we would march up with the Ancients to the 
State House. The men were setting posts along the 
Common from Belknap to West Street, to enclose 
the parade gound, and old Richardson, the armorer, 
had just pitched the officers' marquee nearly opposite 
St. Paul's Church. We loosened some of the guy lines 
and he chased us. 

" Down at Faneuil Hall there were wheelbarrows of 
lobsters ; they looked so red I wanted to taste them. 

"At last the drums beat, the Ancients marched forth, 
wheeled into platoons, and we accompanied them up 
State, Washington, School, and Beacon Streets to the 
State House. They formed in line and sent the ad- 
jutant, Colonel Tyler, up to the governor. Down 
marched meek Sheriff Sumner, with his long white 
wand, then Governor Lincoln, dressed like Napoleon, 
with his aides, Josiah Quincy, Jr., very flat-chested, 
and John Brazer Davis, with his pop eyes, behind them 
the silver-haired Lieutenant Governor Winthrop, much 
bent with age, and then Adjutant-General Sumner, 
with a buff-breasted coat all ribbed with gold lace, and 
an enormous chapeau fringed with ostrich feathers, stout 
and pompous. Then the Ancients saluted, wheeled into 
column and marched, not as now at common time, but 



88 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

slow and stately, and we ran down to get up to the 
staircase window to see them as they wheeled into 
Chauncy Place. 

" At first we could only hear the bass drum, and then 
a wail from the clarionets, and at last the tune, as they 
marched slowly under the trees down Park and Winter 
and Summer Streets, and wheeled into Chauncy Place. 
The music ceases, a few sharp orders are given, the An- 
cients salute and file into the church after the governor. 
Then we boys parade, our commander has an epaulette 
of his grandfather's, once a major of the Cadets, and 
after a slow march to our own tooting, up and down 
the Court, we enter a small building and read a ser- 
mon from some of the newspapers lying there. That 
ceremony ended, we issue forth in time to accompany 
the Ancients down to Faneuil Hall, and then home to 
dinner. 

"In the afternoon, sitting on the octagonal rail of 
the Common fence, we wait until (about four o'clock) 
the Ancients march through a gate half way up Park 
Street, opened only on this day, into their reserved 
parade ground; the artiller}'- men, most of them old 
members or officers of artillery companies, prepare for 
a salute ; the infantry march to the State House for the 
governor, etc. As he is escorted into the square, the 
artillery fire thirteen guns; he takes his seat just in 
front of the Hancock House, and the whole company 
salute him and pass in review. Then they form a 
square and their captain talks to them, and re-forms 
them in line. Now comes the great ceremony ; the cap- 
tain, brandishing an espontoon, marches up the slope to 



DURING THE CIVIL WAR 89 

a slow march by the band, salutes and then addresses 
the governor and resigns his commission. The gov- 
ernor takes his espontoon and talks to him, — I could not 
hear what either of them said. The captain was Colonel 
Hunting, — he is a good honest-looking man in one of 
the plain blue and silver uniforms, with a half-moon 
chapeau, his white sword belt over his shoulder, and 
his wide white trousers were stiff and very short and 
his boots clumsy. 

"When the governor had done talking, he wheeled 
about, the drums and fifes struck up, and down he 
marched at quick-step through the company down to 
the marquee, and there he jumps up twice, high in the 
air, — what for I don't know, unless because he is glad 
he has got through, or perhaps, like Judge Sewall 
when commander, 'the firing much distempered him.' 
As Colonel Hunting marches down, up marches the 
new commander; he is a little short, square-built man, 
Colonel Learned ; looks well for a country soldier. He 
listens while the governor tells him what he ought to 
do and gives him the espontoon ; then he begins to talk 
and shake his head very much, — I don't know what 
it was about. Then he wheels, the band plays a slow 
march, and flourishing the espontoon, he marches down 
to the company. 

"We are tired and go home, and on my mother's 
bureau I find just eleven cents, my share of the peep- 
show, — it isn't much for two weeks' work." 

Colonel Lee's labors as aide-de-camp stimulated his 
interest and greatly increased his knowledge in matters 



90 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

military. Accordingly, he says: "During the war, 
Governor Andrew commissioned me to write a history 
of the militia with a scheme for its improvement." 
This led to a great amount of labor, and at last to the 
publication, in 1864, of a monograph of one hundred 
and thirty pages, entitled " The Militia of the United 
States: What it has been: What it should be." In 
this he " laid down what he considered to be the true 
basis for a satisfactory militia system; urging, espe- 
cially, reduction in numbers, uniformity in organization, 
the furnishing by the general government of arms and 
equipments, the framing of a code of tactics expressly 
for the militia, the creation of a general militia staff, 
and rudimentary instruction in tactics in every public 
school. Large use of his labors was made by the Com- 
mission which had much to do with framing the exist- 
ing militia law of Massachusetts." ^ For many years 
afterwards Colonel Lee, availing himself of our recep- 
tive newspapers, continued to pour liberal contributions 
into the ocean of literature on this subject. 

1 "Memorial History of Boston," III, 328. 



The " Boylston House" Brookline, owned by Colonel Lees 
father and himself 



CHAPTER IV 

INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 

After his retirement from Governor Andrew's staff, 
Colonel Lee held only two other offices in public life. 
One of these was as a member of the State Legislature, 
to which he was elected from the Ninth District of thef 
County of Suffolk, and in 1877 was re-elected. In 1876 
he was on the Committee on Banks and Banking; in 
1877 he was on the joint Committee on the Hoosac 
Tunnel and Troy and Greenfield Railroad ; and in both 
years he was on the joint Committee on Military Affairs. 
This last committee took much testimony as to proposed 
changes, interest in the subject being very lively for 
the moment ; but these labors were contributory rather 
than final, for the permanent law was not passed until 
1878. 

Mentioning these two legislative terms in certain 
memoranda in his later years, Colonel Lee added that, 
"having like his ancestors little taste for public life, 
he has since declined various official positions of a 
public nature." What these positions were one would 
like to know. They could hardly have been any which 
the manipulating politicians of either party could have 
blockaded against him. He was precisely the kind 
of man whom they detested, and he could hardly have 



/ 
92 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

acMeved in their despite a lasting success in public life. 
He was too unmanageably upright, independent and 
outspoken ; and in the mixed and questionable com- 
pany which constitutes the " machine " he would soon 
have been at odds with every component part, down 
to the smallest pin. Fortunately by holding aloof from 
competition for office he at least avoided the useless- 
ness attendant upon the reputation of being a dis- 
appointed seeker, or a wrong-headed and whimsical 
" kicker." It is not, however, to be fancied that he 
was one of those who assume to sneer at others who 
engage in the public service. His attitude was the 
direct opposite of that depreciation which some persons 
like to affect. He thought himself unfit for such tasks, 
and he lamented this supposed unfitness, and spoke 
with generous and hearty admiration of his friends and 
acquaintance who accepted and faithfully labored in 
positions of public usefulness. 

His interest in public affairs suffered no diminution 
down to the end of his hfe. With a very fervid tem- 
perament and having strong, clear convictions about 
every measure and every man, he constantly made his 
opinions public, and in so doing exercised a varying, 
but generally a considerable, influence in eastern Massa- 
chusetts. Meeting daily, in the way of talk, an un- 
usually large number of persons, he had abundant 
opportunities of uttering his views, and those who 
remember him will bear witness that he availed him- 
self of those opportunities with much eloquence and 
persistence. As a frequent writer for the newspapers 
he reached a wider audience. These illimitable news- 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 93 

papers, which smother our breakfast tables and obstruct 
the draft at the evening fireside, are glad, of course, to 
spread their broad sheets as hospitable burial places for 
communications even from the least valued correspond- 
ents. But the skilled reader learns the earmarks, and 
few of the intelligent class in Boston passed by a letter 
or paragraph signed " H. L." or " L " or " An Old Free 
Soiler " or " Senex." These favorite signatures, like 
red flags, indicated something to be looked out for, 
something probably explosive in the immediate neigh- 
borhood. For as the foe of all that was dishonest, mean, 
truckling or incompetent in public life. Colonel Lee 
inevitably wrote more often in hostility than in praise, 
and spirited attack is a much more exhilarating spectacle 
than judicial commendation. We all delight to see any- 
one skilfully carved, and his surgery was so briiUant 
that when he held the knife spectators gathered eagerly. 
In a literary way his work had much fascination in his 
singularly happy use of quotations and allusions. Of 
these he had a vast store, drawn chiefly from the Bible, 
Shakespeare, Sheridan and Emerson, but by no means 
limited to these writers, for every picturesque phrase 
seemed to rest in his memory. There is no more tren- 
chant blade than the well-adapted and not too common- 
place quotation, and Colonel Lee was apt to open his 
paper with one which struck the kej^note and set the 
reader at once in a sympathetic and appreciative atti- 
tude. Thus, when in 1864, General McClellan wiis 
nominated for the presidency. Colonel Lee's paragraph 
bore the heading: " Died Abner as the Fool Dieth," and 
continued : 



94 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" His only distinction being a disputed claim to 
generalship, he relinquishes his profession in time of 
war to head a party which coquettes with the enemy 
and threatens armed resistance to the federal govern- 
ment. 

" His letter of acceptance displays the vanit}^ and moral 
obtuseness evinced by his consent to stand, or rather 
to tilt, upon the Chicago platform; for platform it is 
called, though it will prove to McClellan a gallows, the 
drop of which is in the hands of the enemy." 

If the Civil War, like all wars, stimulated corruption 
in excess, it also, by its unusual infusion of moral ele- 
ments, encouraged the growth of a small but earnest 
body of idealists in public affairs. These men cherished 
an affection for the Republican party quite different 
from the ordinary party fealty ; they respected it, and 
really believed that it was going to introduce perma- 
nently a decent, even a high, standard of morality in 
public affairs. Among them, in Massachusetts, Colonel 
Lee was prominent, and for him and these comrades 
the two administrations of General Grant were a dis- 
illusioning period, during which they had to learn that 
Republican politicians and office-holders were no better 
than any other politicians and office-holders. General 
Grant entered on his novel duties resolved to have a 
clean administration. But soon, lassoed by the horde 
of experienced knaves in Washington, thrown down 
and helpless, he surrendered at discretion. Colonel Lee 
bemoaned his "moral obtuseness," but was obliged to 
recognize that the blame in fact belonged to his own 
beloved party, wholly controlled by men whose favorite 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 95 

sin of dishonesty was precisely the sin most abhorrent to 
him. Unfortunately, also, he had to admit that nowhere 
else did conditions seem worse than in Massachusetts, 
where the party either could not, or would not, eject 
General Butler. From the outbreak of the war until 
about 1885, this politician was constantly demanding, 
and often occupying, public office, and at frequent inter- 
vals during that period all the honest and respectable 
citizens of Massachusetts gathered to the hunting of 
Butler, as men in primitive communities gather to the 
hunting of a dangerous beast. Colonel Lee, among the 
foremost, filled and emptied and refilled many times 
his quiver. No more than any other could he inflict a 
mortal wound, but that he sent shafts which hurt was 
proved by the fact that Butler, who was not often 
personally revengeful, singled him out for punishment. 
During the term as governor, which the general's patience 
and perseverance at last won for him, a bill for the in- 
corporation of Mr. Lee's Safety Vaults was passed by the 
Legislature. Butler vetoed it ; and when he was asked 
" Why ? " he replied simply : "I am human ! " He had, 
however, a more conventional reason for use when he 
wanted it ; he said that the bill was so largely phrased 
that it "would permit Mr. Lee to stable horses down 
in that basement, if he should take it into his head 
to do so." 

But the ignoble story of Butler has become stale unto 
weariness. The man is dead, and the few friends who 
have endeavored to have his statue set up in front of 
the State House to dishonor the Commonwealth have 
failed of success. Everyone is glad to bury his memory 



96 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

in the grave with himself, and the assaults of Colonel 
Lee will not be reprinted here. 

In January, 1875, the purging of the Louisiana legis- 
lature by General Sheridan, and the endorsement thereof 
by the national government, aroused a great outburst of 
indignation in many quarters. In Boston a meeting was 
called in Faneuil Hall to protest against it, and the call 
was signed by a long list of representative citizens of the 
city and neighborhood, among whom was Colonel Lee. 
The gathering was so stormy as to recall the anti-slavery 
meetings of the years before the war, and the resem- 
blance was increased by the presence of Wendell 
Phillips, the brilliant orator, always so nobly right until 
1860, and always so hopelessly wrong afterward. That 
gentleman now appeared perched " on the railing of the 
left-hand gallery at the upper end of the hall, in full 
view of and facing the audience," and as usual he was 
opposed with his wonted intensity to the purpose of the 
assemblage. It was soon evident that a large number of 
those present were of his mind, and were ready to break 
up or capture the meeting under his experienced leader- 
ship. These persons interrupted the regular speakers, 
and loudly called for " Wendell Phillips, " until the 
chairman gave him the platform and he uttered a de- 
nunciatory harangue, sneering at the signers of the call, 
and denying, with asperity, that they were representative 
citizens of Boston. Colonel Lee was stirred to a few 
impromptu words in reply : 

" I had not," he said, " the slightest intention of 
speaking, but I want to say one thing. We have 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 97 

against us here the most formidable orator in the 
United States. . . . We have invited him to speak. 
Nobody proposes to answer him ; in fact, he is generally 
unanswerable. One remark I want to make, and that 
is, when he begged us not to criticise General Grant's 
message, it is the first time that ever I knew him to 
abstain from criticism of any sort. I thought that 
Mr. Phillips was nothing if he was not critical. I 
have always supposed that he criticised evei-ything and 
everybody. I served for four years with Governor 
Andrew during the war, in which we were enrolled 
to emancipate the negro. During all that time I am 
not aware that Mr. Phillips ever gave one -word of 
cheer to Governor Andrew, who, I know, felt the want 
of it. . . ." 

Not content, however, to let the matter rest thus 
Colonel Lee wrote the following paper, obviously in- 
tended for publication and perhaps published, though it 
is now impossible to trace it : 

" We wonder if Mr. Phillips ever consulted an oculist ; 
if not, he really should have spectacles to enable him to 
see himself and his fellow-creatures in the same focus. 
Exaggerating his own rights, he claimed that Governor 
Andrew should, without the shadow of authority, 
assemble the militia of the State to be ready in case 
of need to protect a meeting which Mr. Phillips and his 
friends proposed to hold in the critical days of February, 
1861, contrary to the Governor's advice; and as the 
chief magistrate w^ould not break the law at his bidding, 
Phillips withdrew from him his approbation all through 
the four weary years of the War. The interruption of 

7 



98 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

said meeting by certain citizens he denounced the other 
day at Faneuil Hall as an outrage, as it certainly was, 
the act of a mob ; while he utterly ignored the fact that 
he was at Faneuil Hall perched in the most conspicuous 
spot, attracting attention by his lively movements and 
exaggerated exclamations, interrupting the speeches by 
hisses led off by him and echoed by Custom House 
loafers judiciously distributed by Simmons the Col- 
lector and ballot-stuffer, — that he came there to 
enact the part of a mob leader by his own definition. 
Wilby should not have captured the House of Repre- 
sentatives, — the pro-slavery citizens should not have 
captured Mr. Phillips' meeting, but Phillips as censor 
morum and reformer par excellence might capture the 
meeting of Friday, without incurring the charge of 
inconsistency ! 

" Mr. Phillips is above all things an aristocrat, and a 
man of great sensitiveness, a man proud of his lineage, 
proud of his faultless form and face, of his meUifluous 
voice, of his graceful delivery ; they give delight to all 
who see and hear him, and to none more than to himself. 
I say proud, — perhaps vain would be the more correct 
word. He comes to capture the meeting, but is foiled ; 
he is cordially invited to follow the advertised speakers, 
is courteously introduced, a hearing claimed for him by 
the president again and again, and how does he return 
this courtesy? By turning upon these gentlemen who 
were not, like Mr. Phillips, men without a country, 
but men who deemed their citizenship a privilege in- 
volving some duties which they had no right to abdicate, 
— by turning upon these gentlemen, as if * they had 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 99 

no rights anyone was bound to respect' and ridicul- 
ing them for presuming to call a meeting. 

" De minimis non curat lex, and the public takes little 
heed of the efforts of the lowly and obscure, but I 
thought Phillips and Garrison were born to champion 
just this class. There were men among the callers 
who might dispute with Mr. Phillips his superior birth 
and claims, but he would have remained unconvinced. 
There were about two dozen lawyers among the signers, 
headed by his friend, Mr. Paine; there were over 
twenty merchants, bankers and manufacturers; there 
were two well-known Boston clergymen, though over- 
looked by him ; there were about a dozen men who have 
held responsible public places, headed by Mr. Charles 
Francis Adams, whom he condescendingly allowed to 
be a worthy man ; there were two writers of history, — 
one, Mr. Frothingham, supposed to know something 
of our constitutional history ; the President of Harvard 
College and two professors were on the list ; the Mayor 
of Boston and two Aldermen, besides many more men 
of character and talent. But he damned them all with 
faint praise, with the pride of a Coriolanus and the 
subtlety of Mark Antony, and he would not even grant 
them the right of issuing an invitation. It is hardly 
worth while to explain that the signers published were 
selected as representatives of a larger list, nor to state 
that many men with handles to their names would have 
gladly joined the callers had they been wanted, nor to 
remind Mr. Phillips of what he has had such frequent 
occasion to expatiate upon with bitter scorn, that there 
are always a majority of tories, — of preachers, judges, 



100 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

editors, placemen of all kinds who are sworn to pusil- 
lanimity, rich men who are above politics, lazy men, 
stupid men, timid men ; — the very men he has been 
tilting at all his fiery life, whom he never before cited as 
authorities, — besides the other side who uphold the 
soldiers with sincerity. 

" When Mr. Phillips stated that he had been studying 
the Constitution for twenty years, I felt as I should had 
I been bothering with my front door lock and a polite 
burglar should have volunteered his help with the 
remark that he had been studying my lock for a year 
or more. What! Wendell Phillips studying '■'■that com- 
pact with helV for twenty years? What a diabolical 
occupation! And then to hear him deprecate criticism 
on Grant ! Does he recollect his speech on Grant made 
some three years ago ? Did anyone ever vituperate 
him more roundly? Criticism! Why, Mr. Phillips, 
what man living or dead, including our own Garrison, 
have you not found fault with, except, yes ! except that 
renowned, brave, truthful, honest Benjamin F. Butler ! 
He is, I believe, your idol and, like his admirer, he is 
afflicted with strabismus. When we were at peace, that 
was a disgrace, a compact with hell ; when the war, 
which you had done your best to bring on, had broken 
out, you deprecated that and prophesied evils which, of 
course, never visited us. The world is always out of 
joint, according to you, and in your opinion you were 
born to set it right. I wonder, had one of the five 
ejected members 

been guilty of a skin 
not colored like his own, 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 101 

whether Mr. Phillips's diatribes would have been shifted 
to the other side ? 

" The trouble with Mr. Phillips is his transparency ; 
everybody sees through him 'tliat can see a church by 
daylight.' Handsome and graceful as a Grecian statue, 
eloquent as Cicero, devoted, as he probably believes, to 
humanity, to the greatest good of the greatest number, 
everybody else knows that in Mr. Wendell Phillips's 
heart of hearts, that number is number one. Hence, 
hosts go to be excited by his eloquence as they go to 
the play, but they do not identify the player with the 
play ; they never follow his lead." 

In 1876, in spite of much dissatisfaction with the 
Republican party. Colonel Lee still adhered to it, though 
by a somewhat tenuous attachment. A letter more full 
of protest than loyalty, closed with this paragraph : 

" For one, I propose to vote for Hayes and Wheeler, 
believing them to be honest and hoping them to be com- 
petent to fulfill the great responsibilities imposed upon 
them ; but I would not vote for an Usher, a Banks or a 
Butler. And while I abhor the very name of Democrat 
associated with all its dirty history from Jefferson down, 
I hold slack allegiance to a party which offers as candi- 
dates, and parades as its great men, political bummers 
like the men enumerated above, men who merit not 
only political, but personal contempt. 

A Free Soiler of 1848." 

If Colonel Lee carried out the intention thus ex- 
pressed, and voted for Mr. Hayes, he may have re- 
pented it afterward, in the evil days when the Silver 
Bill became law. This act he " considered to be not 



102 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

the act of honest men, who have given the subject care- 
ful thought, and reached a conclusion different from 
that of himself and others, believing in gold as the only 
honest currency of the country, but rather the act of a 
set of men bent upon repudiation." As he continued 
his wrath rose, and with somewhat amusing extrav- 
agance he declared : " Though I have lived here for 
sixty years, and know no other home, I wish that I 
might awake some morning and find Boston annexed 
to Canada or to some other nation, so ashamed do I feel 
of this stain upon the nation's honor." Concerning 
the possibility of averting the action by Congress he 
expressed " the fullest belief that the President was 
largely, if not wholly to blame for the passage of the 
measure. If President Hayes had in June last put one 
heel on Arthur and tlie other on Simmons, and filled 
both their offices with men who have to be sought for, 
rather than such as seek public office, he would have 
created a party that would have rallied about him and 
made such an act as the passage of this bill an impos- 
sibility. No man since the days of the outbreak of the 
rebellion ever had such an opportunity to command a 
following as did President Hayes after taking the office 
of chief magistrate. I thank him for his veto, and for 
the record that he made for the nation in that brief 
message, but I cannot but feel that he has disgraced his 
great office by not leading the nation to better things." 

Thus in Massachusetts fully as much as in the coun- 
try at large one offence after another continued to irri- 
tate and to alienate Colonel Lee. General Butler, who 
had begun in 1871 to seek the Governorship of Massa- 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 103 

chusetts, who had renewed his efforts at intervals since 
then, and had caused the bitterest campaigns known 
in the annals of the state, won the contest in the 
autumn of 1882. In smaller matters Colonel Lee had 
been outraged at seeing " the unspeakable creature, 
Simmons," Butler's worst henchman and smirched with 
the meanest dishonesties, acting as a cliief manager of 
the Republican party; also Mr. Beard, appointed col- 
lector of the port of Boston, making the Custom House 
the centre of the political wire system of the state. But 
the ultimate day did not actually come until Mr. Blaine 
was nominated as the Republican candidate for the 
Presidency, That blow finally severed the allegiance of 
Colonel Lee. He still had too much of his old " abhor- 
rence" of the name of Democrat to permit his joining 
that party; he therefore became an Lidependent, or 
more correctly a Mugwump, — for a slight distinction 
was sometimes made between the two, a Mugwump 
signifying a Republican temporarily malcontent. But 
the temporary condition soon taking on an aspect of 
permanence, most Mugwumps became strictly Inde- 
pendents, so long as they stopped short of avowed 
Democracy. 

In October, 1884, "An Old Free Soiler" at Beverly 
Farms wrote some strenuous paragraphs for the Daily 
Advertiser against " Blaine's defenders." He also wrote, 
this time suggestively selecting the Democratic Post 
as his newspaper, a trenchant defence of the Mugwump 
group : 

" At a meeting: of the little mutual admiration clubs 
which assemble every week, and serve up political hash 



104 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

for men with strong stomachs, Judge Adin Thayer made 
what the Advertiser calls a vigorous analj'sis of the 
Boston 3Ii(gtvump-machine combination. Now in the first 
place, the Mugwumps keep no machine ; the leaders, like 
the manager of the Associated Charities, inculcate self 
help. Mugwumps compare with partisan politicians as 
wrought iron, each piece hand-hammered into its indi- 
vidual shape, compares with machine-made cast iron in 
interchangeable pieces. Judge Thaj'^er says that he 
looks on the Mugwumps 'mth indignation, not unmin- 
gled with contempt.' Well, well ! I never did suppose 
that I should fall so low, or Adin rise so high, that he 
could look upon me with contempt. Perhaps, like many 
another sick man, he misunderstands his feeling ; he, as 
a party wire-puller, feels vexation, not unmingled with 
incredulity, at men who refuse to play the jumping-jack 
at his bidding. They are to him the Barnum ' What is 
it ' ; they have never been included in his happy family. 
He inveighs, too, against the professors of our colleges 
because they preach free trade doctrines, unable to 
comprehend that these single-hearted men, like the 
Mugwumps, are in search of truth, and, like upright 
judges, sum up the testimony on one side and on the other, 
striving thereby to lead their pupils to just conclusions 
without regard to the fortunes of either political party. 

" The Mugwumps, as Judge Thayer well knows, are 
men who have reluctantly quitted the party which some 
of them, as Free Soilers, helped to found, for the success 
of which they contributed money and work, because of 
the successive adoption, against their protests, of such 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 105 

men as Butler and Loring and Simmons and Blaine; 
and it was not until long deferred hope was hardened 
into despair by the nomination of Blaine that the 
protestants banded together and were recognized as 
Mugwumps. 

" While Judge Thayer denounces Simmons as a down- 
right robber, and the citizens of Boston for their coward- 
ice in not bringing such a character to justice, he, in the 
same breath, declares that 'he honestly believed, and 
still believes, Blaine entitled to support ! ! ! ' * A Daniel 
come to judgment ! Yea, a Daniel ! O noble judge ! ' 
We wonder what court Judge Thayer presides over, 
what are the rules of evidence, what constitutes reason- 
able proof? The Mugwumps and college professors 
naturally appeal to a higher court, but we should 
suppose that the most pett}^ judge who could ' see ' a 
court by daylight could gather from the tenor of Blaine's 
life, personal and political, whether he was honest or 
dishonest, a man of truth or a liar. If Judge Thayer 
wishes to be thought a man of truth, he must either 
acquit Simmons or convict Blaine ; they are both tarred 
with the same brush. ' Raising anew the standard here 
in Massachusetts ' is an unfortunate phrase for a man 
who, when selected as standard-bearer upon a former 
occasion, had such a brief and inglorious career. 

" No, Adin was not born a judge or a standard-bearer ; 
for a standard-bearer must be made of sterner stuff, and 
a man to be a judge must be modest, dignified, impartial, 
blind to prejudice, but not to vileness, and so capable of 
holding the scales evenly and wielding the sword right- 



106 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

eously ; he must know that one witness who does see is 
worth ten who do not see ; above all, he must first cast 
the beam out of his own eye, before he can see clearly 
to puU out the mote that is in liis brother's eye. A 
man who has passed his life in counting noses, manipu- 
lating caucuses, arranging slates, valuing men for their 
availability, not for their integrity, placing partisanship 
before patriotism, liad best not ' invoke the judgment of 
all intelKgent, sincere men,' for they will refute his 
assertions and expose liis duplicity. 

" Adin's vocation, wherein he is eminent, is hustling 
in and out of a country hotel on the eve of a political 
convention, followed by local dignitaries and wire-pull- 
ers, or croonmg over the register with one in the corner 
of the hotel parlor, as they alternately spit and mutter 
over their schemes ; and there we leave them." 

A little later came another screed, with some of that 
brilliant rapier work which delighted everyone except 
the individual whose vitals were pierced : 

"HOW SHALL INDEPENDENTS VOTE? 
To THE Editors of the Boston Daily Advertiser: 

*' As the day for voting draws near, it behooves all 
Independents to make up their minds as to whom they 
will support for governor and for members of Congress. 

"The character of the presidential candidate nomi- 
nated by the Republican convention has compelled his 
supporters to adopt the dishonest alternative of eluding 
the real and substituting false issues between themselves 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 107 

and their former political associates, or to commit them- 
selves to the more barefaced, if not more dishonest, 
course of lauding the character and career of a candi- 
date whom they repeatedly denounced before his sinuous 
course had been traced, leaving no doubt of his lifelong 
consistency of dishonesty. 

"The citizen who votes to confide to this political 
mountebank the executive power of President does so, 
either because he believes in the name of the party when 
the spirit has fled, thereby losing the moral result which 
gave that party its specific value and insured its triumph 
over the party it superseded ; or because he refuses to 
accept evidence which would have convicted his candi- 
date in any court in Christendom ; or because his stand- 
ard of morality is reached by Mr. Blaine. 

" Inasmuch, then, as I hold that the citizen who advo- 
cates Mr. Blaine does so from inexcusable ignorance, 
from party bigotry, or from moral obtuseness, and as 
I deem such men incapable of promoting the common 
weal, I accept my exclusion from their conventions, and 
shall vote for no Republican candidate for Congress or 

for governor. 

"An Old Free Soiler." 

The position of the Mugwump was not long tenable, 
especially for men of Colonel Lee's temperament. A 
permanent malcontent loses influence; moreover, their 
quondam Republican associates persisted in regarding 
the word as a synonym of apostate, and thus held them 
too much upon the defensive. It is true that they were 
even violently aggressive ; yet the most brilliant attacks 
wliich Colonel Lee could make, — and no man was a 



108 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

better master of assault, — seemed to move from a de- 
fensive base. Therefore it was inevitable that, fighting 
side by side with the Democrats, they should in time 
become merged in that powerful organization. So by 
1890 Colonel Lee forgot his " abhorrence of the very 
name of Democrat," condoned the " dirty history " of 
the party and enrolled himself as a member. There 
was in that year in Massachusetts one of those sharply 
reactionary episodes which at intervals disable political 
machines for one or two elections. John F. Andrew, 
the " War Governor's " son (who was up for re-election), 
Charles R. Codman, an ex-Republican like Colonel Lee, 
and who had commanded a regiment in the war, Sher- 
man Hoar, nephew of the stanch Republican senator, 
George F. Hoar, and Professor William Everett, offered 
themselves avowedly as Democratic candidates for the 
National House of Representatives. Sherman Hoar, 
when invited to stand, consulted Colonel Lee, who at 
first, on personal grounds, dissuaded him, but afterwards, 
upon removal of these objections, changed his advice and 
actually wrote a long letter to his friend. Judge E. R. 
Hoar, seeking to reconcile that stalwart Republican to 
this action on the part of his son. Into this campaign 
Colonel Lee threw himself with more than his usual 
vigor. On November 4th, by invitation of the Demo- 
crat, Josiah Quincy, he presided at a great Democratic 
rally in Faneuil Hall. He opened the meeting with a 
very brief speech, evoking much laughter by his initial 
statement : " I am not a practised politician ; but have 
been brought here simply as an object lesson, to prove to 
those on the other side that there are old men, as well 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 109 

as young, in our ranks;" for many of the candidates 
had been twitted with the " atrocious crime " of youth. 
Later in the evening he introduced Sherman Hoar with 
words thus reported : 

" I shall now have the pleasure of introducing to you 
' the lad,' Sherman Hoar, and before he stands up to 
address you, I want to pay a passing tribute to my old 
friend, his father. There has not been a more patriotic, 
public-spirited citizen or a better man adorn this genera- 
tion than Judge Hoar. (Applause.) When, at about 
the present age of his son Sherman, he broke away from 
the Whig party — then panoplied in wealth and respect- 
ability — he broke away from them because of their 
sordid pusillanimity. They were in just the condition 
which the Republican party, I believe, is in now, (Ap- 
plause.) He broke from many friends in order to satisfy 
the dictates of his conscience. (Applause.) And that 
monitor has guided him ever since. There were a good 
many boys around at that time. There is a good boy ^ 
whose portrait I see here, in whose service I was in the 
Civil War, — ■ he was a year younger than I, and that boy 
presided at the first Free Soil meeting held in Boston in 
18-48. I was thirty-one. I was one of the vice-presidents ; 
he was not thirty. He was a boy of the present age of 
Sherman Hoar, but he made some impression on the 
public. I want, therefore, now to introduce to you this 
boy, but don't tire him out. (Laughter.) Don't do any- 
thing that is disrespectful to him, even if he is a boy." 

In the newspapers he assailed opponents with his usual 
uncompromising directness, especially Mr. Greenhalge, 
^ Governor John A. Andrew. 



110 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

then a member of the national House of Representatives, 
whom he pilloried as a " puny whipster " who " seems to 
be capable of violating decency unconsciously, or else is 
guilty of duplicity." Then he turned to place Messrs. 
Pillsbury and G. F. Hoar in the stocks together : 

" ' Charles, did you ever hear me preach ? ' said Cole- 
ridge to Lamb. ' I n-n-never heard you d-d-do anything 
else,' was the reply. And so I could say of Senator 
Pillsbury. It used to amuse me to watch him, then 
younger than is Mr. Curtis Guild, Jr., to-day, preaching 
with all the ignorant complaisance of a Sophomore to 
members of the Legislature, quite unconscious that they 
had heard all he had to say before he was born. Now 
he poses as one of these same experienced men, speaking 
oracularly to his juniors, and very extraordinary, not to 
say very unprincipled, advice he gives. Of course he 
prefaces this bad advice with an assertion of high prin- 
ciple : ' No man has a higher respect for conscience 
than I have.' * The personal character of a candidate is 
of the utmost importance and ought not to be lost sight 
of.' Then comes the impotent and lame conclusion: 
' The question whether I ought to support a candidate 
for nomination and whether I ought to support a candi- 
date after he is nominated are altogether different mat- 
ters, and I should vote every time for the party nominee.' 
Thus does Mr. Pillsbury rebuke young Mr. Guild for 
refusing to vote for the incompetent and unworthy can- 
didate, Mr. Fox. 

" In the same key Senator Hoar says : ' I commend 
candidate Fox to you for the simple reason that, if he is 
sent to Congress as a Republican, he must vote to en- 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 111 

throne the 65,000,000 people of this country in comfort, 
honor and equality.' 

" It is one thing to yield to temptation, it is a much 
baser thing to preach iniquity to those whom we may 
expect to influence ; and what can be wickeder than to 
counsel young men to forfeit their self-respect and to 
follow a multitude to do evil ? " 

Ex-Governor Long said that if General Walker, Henry 
Lee and Phillips Brooks were to select men to go to 
Washington, from a business standpoint, they would 
hardly choose the Democratic nominees. Mr. Lee replied 
that he considered these nominees " quite above the 
present members in character and independence; and 
while some of them may lack experience, they are all 
capable of learning, and, I trust, incapable of yielding 
to caucus or to the arbitrary dictation of a vulgar, bully- 
ing Speaker." 

Senator Hoar, never famous for an innocuous tongue, 
scored his Democratic nephew without remorse. But 
Mr. Lee came into the hsts and the senator met his 
match, or better: 

" When Charles Russell Lowell, the natural leader of 
men, graduated, the first and youngest of his class, the 
subject of his oration was : ' The Respect Due to the 
Young.' It is a pity that Senator Hoar did not hear that 
oration, or that, hearing, he did not heed its lesson ; it 
might have saved him from insulting his nephew by 
impertinent condescension and hypocritical lamentation. 

"The Senator calls his nephew 'an amiable young 
gentleman.' I only wish that he could return the com- 



112 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

pliment. No man can be rightly called ' an amiable 
gentleman ' who turns against and asperses early associ- 
ates whose characters he respects and whose tastes he 
shares, and who takes up with those whom he once 
denounced and whom he must always despise ; who, deaf 
to remonstrance and false to his teachings, allows meas- 
ures to be passed which endanger and diminish prosperity 
and stability, — who does all this, perverted from his 
early patriotism by a devouring egotism and an insensate 
partisanship. There are no men high enough to be 
beyond his detraction, or humble enough to escape his 
scorn ; he impales the conspicuous, from President Eliot 
to the Democratic candidates for Congress, and arraigns 
the party as a whole for ' its offenses against constitu- 
tional liberty and honest government, and its attempts 
to destroy the comfort and happiness of the workman's 
home.' And this austere moralist, who condemns thus 
in wholesale and retail, does not shrink from commend- 
insr candidate Fox to the voters of the Fifth District. 

" Sherman Hoar's best friends will counsel him to use 
his uncle, the senator, as a warning, not an example." 

The result of this campaign was the brilliant vic- 
tory of the young brigade, to Colonel Lee's great sat- 
isfaction. But two years later a reverse came. In 
the presidential election Mr. Cleveland was defeated 
by Mr. Harrison. Mr. Lee, however, took it in good 
part, and drew the moral against his own political 
associates without flinching. 

" I think," he said, " the best policy for the Demo- 
cratic party, in order to retrieve the disaster of yester- 
day, would be to keep their promises. The Democratic 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 113 

party is pretty well smashed. If its members had all 
followed the lead of Mr. Cleveland, not alone in regard 
to tariff, but all other measures as well, it would have 
been well for them. Mr. Gorman and other wicked 
leaders undertook to frustrate all his plans, and the 
result is to be seen now. No one-horse shay can go in 
two directions at the same time. 

" The Democrats had a good leader in Mr. Cleveland, 
an upright, courageous leader, and they had a truthful, 
considerate man at the head of the Ways and Means 
Committee in Mr. Wilson ; but some Democratic sena- 
tors tried their best to harass the leaders and not follow 
Mr. Cleveland, and to upset all Mr. Wilson's well- 
laid plans. Now it can be seen that they have made a 
mess of it." 

In 1892 Colonel Lee returned to his attack upon 
Senator Hoar in a personal letter, eminently charac- 
teristic of the fairness with which he gave praise and 
blame precisely according to his opinion. The follow- 
ing is a copy of the rough draft, but apparently cor- 
rected for sending : 

" My dear Senator : — 

"I have a personal and hereditary affection for you ; 
I believe that against your pecuniary interests you have 
stayed in public service from a patriotic motive. You 
were nominated while I was a member of the House of 
Representatives, and when summoned to the Tremont 
House to be talked to by that officious Punchinello, Mr. 
Thayer, and they were talking of their kindly feeling to 



114 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Mr. Boutwell, etc., I rose to depart, saying that I had 
no kindly feeling to Mr. Boutwell, and should vote for 
you whether the caucus did or not. I said this, not 
for show, but to evince my contempt (for what it was 
worth, as every honest man should) for all this insin- 
cere political twaddle and all the machinery managed by 
little, insignificant men practising mischief, placing 
availability, etc., against honesty and self-respect, I 
voted for you because, as a son of Samuel Hoar, I be- 
lieved you to be incorruptible, though I knew that as a 
descendant of Roger Sherman you were knotty, not to 
say cranky. I care so little about people's opinions and 
so much about their principles, that I voted gladly for 
you. 

" For instance, in 1827, my father wrote the ' Boston 
Report,' and Judge Shaw the ' Memorial,' — in 1831 my 
father wrote the ' Exposition of Evidence ' and Galla- 
tin the ' Memorial ' at a ' Free Trade Convention of all 
the States.' For these admirable writings . . . my 
father was treated as badly as was your father in 
Charleston. Of course in a northern community no 
violence was offered, nor could a man of his birth and 
position be looked down upon by promoted shopkeep- 
ers ; but as far as they dared and as they could, the then 
rich sellers of dry goods showed their ill will. From 
that hour I have been an intelligent, earnest Free 
Trader, with a knowledge and undying remembrance of 
the spirit of the sometimes greedy, sometimes supersti- 
tious, tariff men, bent, not upon discussion, but upon 
bribery (as towards Daniel Webster), and upon browbeat- 
ing and arrogance and plunder towards the public at large. 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 115 

Nevertheless, I held some slack allegiance to the Whig 
party, not because I respected a party based on greed 
and ignorance of economic laws, but because in other 
matters which I deemed important I agreed with them. 
Gradually more and more nauseated by their eternal 
backing and bragging, I eagerly joined the Free Soil 
party, acting as a vice-president at the first meeting in 
Boston in 1848, and took special delight in the indig- 
nant remonstrances of all the old-man-ocracy at insur- 
ance offices, banks, and other parlors, — social and 
financial. I was never deemed of any political impor- 
tance, but was never forgotten when money was needed. 
Since the war the party has, in my judgment, been 
going down steadily, tarnished by corrupt administra- 
tion, and belittled by egotistic narrowness. Governor 
Andrew felt an ineffable disgust at its policy before he 
died, and I shared his nausea. When Butler was put 
up for Congress I wrote exposing, among other crimes, 
his trading with the enemy ; and, answered by one of 
his satellites, I returned to the charge, obliged, how- 
ever, to sign a legal document to save the paper ^ from 
a lawsuit for libel. I was told by a political leader that 
I was a clever fellow, but that I didn't understand 
politics. I have gone on refuting jackdaws in pea- 
cocks' plumes, knaves whether they called themselves 
Republicans or any other name. 

" This extended autobiography is given to prove that 
I cannot be guided by opinions, still less by professions ; 
for I have patiently acted politically all along with a 
party steeped in ignorance on tariff matters and so led 

1 The Nation, N. Y. 



116 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

by greedy, unscrupulous, rapacious manufacturers; — 
I have acted with them, because, while I felt contempt 
for their tariff policy, I deemed other issues more immi- 
nent and paramount. 

" You have seen fit to vote for and advocate a Blaine 
whom you once confessed to me you did not respect; 
you have, as it has seemed to me, been a bigoted partisan 
on many occasions ; you now sit silent while a tariff 
only more absurd than villainous, and a silver inflation 
bill destined to bring great disaster, and a pension bill 
dictated by claim-agents and bummers, threatening to 
empty the treasury and discolor our war record, con- 
founding shirks with men of honor, men of the eleventh 
hour with those who bore the heat and burden of the 
day, the whole and the maimed; and you sneer at 
college professors from Charles Eliot down, no matter 
how elevated their character ; you speak superciliously 
of young students of political economy in your own 
college ; you say that you know five hundred times as 
much about pension claimants as does President Eliot. 
Now if I, for fifteen years a merchant, should say that I 
know necessarily five hundred times as much about the 
qualities of a collector [of the port], you would not take 
it kindly. You voted for Harrison and try to think 
him a great and good man ; Governor Brackett says 
that posterity will gaze at him as we look back upon 
Washington. I, on the contrary, not speaking ore 
rotundo from any rostrum, but only humbly from my 
Vault, say that, naturally an ordinary man, he has falsi- 
fied every profession made beforehand. As to the 
Saltonstall matter, I read your letter to Eaton with care, 



INTEREST IN TUBLIC AFFAIRS 117 

and while I disagree entirely as to the political excuse 
for violating civil service principles, that cannot excuse 
you or Harrison for succeeding him by a coarse-fibred 
hack politician like Beard, There are plenty of excuses 
for Clarksons, Quays, and Gormans (for they are in my 
eyes of the same color, no matter what their denomina- 
tion among politicians), but your father's son must be 
disheartened and disgusted by any responsibility for 
such rascals. Wanamaker's show of piety in conjunc- 
tion with his purchase of office, and his shopkeeping 
vulgarity towards the Pan-American delegates are hard 
enough to bear ; but your Belknaps, Delanos, Babcocks, 
Robesons, Butlers, Blaines, Gormans, Quays, Clarksons, 
must and can be sent where they belong only by the 
conjunction of all honest men, incapable of partisanship. 

" Hoping for the millennium, when men who are pa- 
triotic and honest may combine, even while differing as to 
some matters where difference is no crime, and respect- 
ing 3'our character while gaping at your conduct, I am, 
with a belief in your sincerity, not in your sanity, . . . 

"P. S. Let me adduce a contrast between the spirit 
of a Free-Trader (ultimate only, as things are now) and 
of a Tariff man : 

" Some years ago my youngest son insisted upon my 
giving some money to the Political Economy Depart- 
ment of Harvard University. Finding from President 
Eliot that the money was needed, and how much, I 
gave $1500 a year for five years. In my letter I 
stated that while I was, and always had been, a Free 
Trader, I wished that my money should be spent in 
seeking the truth and having both opinions set forth 



118 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

with equal ability. There was another fund held by 
some Tariff men ; they instructed President Eliot not 
to use that to advocate any doctrine but Protection. 
Which of us was justified ? Were we both men, or was 
one a man, the other a hog ? " 

His feeling towards Senator Hoar was curiously min- 
gled of contradictory impulses. The combativeness of 
the senator aroused the combativeness of Colonel Lee, 
and when they came near each other there was apt 
to be a boxing match with gloves not so heavily padded 
as to insure entire protection against injury. But they 
enjoyed the bouts as two Irishmen at a wake enjoy 
a friendly clashing of shillalahs, and either would have 
been disappointed if his adversary had ever failed to 
come up to the line. Praise and attack were charac- 
teristically combined in this excellent example of Colo- 
nel Lee's attitude : 

" It is a pleasure to hear a man at his best, and Sena- 
tor Hoar never appears to such advantage as when, 
emerged from self, freed from partisan obligations, he 
illuminates history. His oration on General Rufus Put- 
nam was instructive, eloquent, fascinating; it was a 
deserved tribute to a man developed by responsibility 
and patriotism into a remarkable engineer and eventu- 
ally into the founder of a state, the saviour of a great 
territory from slavery. So little has been known about 
this patriot to whom the country is indebted, that we 
hope this charming oration setting forth his qualities 
and services may be published and advertised, until 
Rufus Putnam is as familiar as his burly kinsman, 
Israel. 



INTEREST IX PUBLIC AFFAIRS 119 

" It is a commonplace that an actor's capacity lies in one 
direction, his ambition in the other, — the Grave Digger 
feels sure he could play Hamlet, wonders at the in- 
credulity of his manager, but submits from prudential 
consideration. 

" What a pity that prudence or some other divinity that 
shapes our ends should not relegate our two senators 
[Hoar and Lodge] to their legitimate occupation of 
literature, where the Mugwump would cease from 
troubling, ambition cease from gnawing; and where 
these two scholars, ' beholding the bright countenance 
of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies,' 
would entertain and enhghten their countrymen." 

In closing with Colonel Lee's political work, this 
r^sum^, which he wrote near the end of his life, shows 
what acts he himself esteemed most highly : 

" (1) 1848 — Vice-President of a Free Soil meeting. 

(2) Next morning's experiences. 

(3) 1846 — By my contributions and collections, 

the chief (and I think the only) sup- 
porter here of the Louisville , 

— an anti-slavery journal, — and I 
remember the position then of some 
who have been prominent long 
since. 

(4) Member of Kansas Emigrant Aid Com- 

pany. 

(5) Treasurer during Kansas Famine. 

(6) Saved Music Hall for Theodore Parker, 

1854. 



120 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

(7) Assisted Governor Andrew to the ex- 

tent of my ability. 

(8) Did not join in dinner to General Butler, 

although urged. 

(9) Opposed his (Butler's) election to Con- 

gress ; brought charges against him 
of so serious a nature, that, to have 
them published, was obliged to sign 
a legal paper agreeing to stand a 
suit. 

(10) Have given largely to promote elec- 

tions, state and federal, although 
have been as dissatisfied with the 
Republicans from Grant's first term 
till now as ever I was with the 
Whicrs. ' Like causes, like effects.' 

(11) Have never sought, — on the contrary, 

have declined to accept, — what nomi- 
nations or positions have been urged 
on me. 

(12) Having no political aspirations, I was 

able, perhaps, to act with more inde- 
pendence, more true consistency, than 
those who had become inoculated with 
the virus of political ambition ; what 
I have done or been, has been all- 
important to me, unimportant to the 
public. 

(13) I have for over forty years written on 

political subjects in the papers, moved 
generally by some folly or outrage." 



INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 121 

In this presentation of Colonel Lee's opinions and 
actions in matters political, little has been quoted con- 
cerninsf either Free Trade or Civil Service Reform. He 
remained all his days a strenuous advocate of a low tariff, 
" for revenue only ; " also he was of course heartily in 
sympathy with Civil Service reformers. He attended 
their meetings, sometimes presided, sometimes spoke 
briefly, and from time to time took occasion to put his 
views in writing. But he did not go so profoundly into 
either of these subjects that he was able to add anything 
to the arguments of men who were devoting to them 
much time and study. 



CHAPTER V 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

The government of Harvard College had laid its 
hand severely upon Mr. Lee's class and not over gently 
upon Mr. Lee personally ; but he bore no malice, and 
apart from persons officially connected with the Uni- 
versity probably no one ever rendered more willing, 
more continuous, and more various service than he did. 

Natural aptitude led him constantly into the position 
of chief marshal, not only upon such an ordinary oc- 
casion as Commencement Day, but upon the two or 
three grand celebrations which occurred during his 
years of activity. Professor Bowen, familiarly known 
to students as " Fanny Bowen," once said of him : " Lee 
is a good marshal ; he is our best marshal ; and the 
cause is largely his supreme impudence." President 
Cleveland also corroborated this judgment. Colonel 
Lee was marshal on the occasion of that President's 
visit to the University ; and later the President, meeting 
and recalling the colonel, said : " Oh, yes, you are the 
fellow who bossed me around so at Cambridge." The 
fact was that Colonel Lee really was of noteworthy ex- 
cellence as a marshal ; he wished to bring these proces- 
sions up to his high ideal of what a procession should 
be ; but the rank and file, more lax in their notions, 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 123 

rambled through the paths of the yard as they would 
have stroUed through Washington Street, which led him 
to complain with some vexation of the " bovine move- 
ments of the alumni." He was chief marshal upon the 
day of the Commemoration Celebration held by the Col- 
lege, July 21, 1865, in honor of the graduates and under- 
graduates who had died in the war. It was the occasion 
when Mr. Lowell delivered his famous Commemoration 
Ode, but unfortunately read it in a manner so ineffective 
as to obscure its beauty. Colonel Lee, somewhat dis- 
appointed with the whole affair, said that " the services 
on that occasion were not equal to what men felt. 
Everything fell short, and words seemed to be weak. 
Phillips Brooks' prayer was an exception. That was a 
free speech to God, and it was the only utterance of that 
day which filled out its meaning to the full extent." The 
unfavorable part of the criticism may be set down, at 
least in some degree, to the reaction from overwrought 
anticipations. But the impression made by the prayer 
was enduring, and many years afterwards, when Dr. 
Brooks, then Bishop of Massachusetts, died. Colonel 
Lee, in some remarks before the Massachusetts His- 
torical Society, said : 

" In the annals of our College there is a red-letter day, 
Commemoration Day, when, after years haggard with 
anxiety, the mother welcomed back the remnant of her 
children who had escaped * the pestilence that walketh 
in darkness, the destruction that wasteth at noonday.' 
On that day words seemed powerless ; they did not vent 
the overflo^\^ng of sympathy and gratitude all felt. But 
in the exercises came a prayer, a brief prayer of a few 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 125 

SO that for him it became almost an annual tax. How- 
much he gave in the total cannot be known ; probably 
he himself never could have stated it ; but unquestion- 
ably that total equalled, or exceeded, sums which have 
been given in single blocks by donors whose names have 
been coupled with their gifts for the memory of coming 
generations. This giving was the more praiseworthy 
on his part because he was by no means always in 
sympathy with the policy of President Eliot, nor always 
sure that his money would serve the purposes which he 
most approved. Unlike many givers, he did not respond 
to demands only to clear his conscience by discharging 
a duty incumbent upon a man of ample property. He 
had a very deep affection for the College and great 
interest in it. He was always watching every new 
movement, kept himself familiar with all conditions, 
and had very clear opinions as to present needs. The 
policy of numerical expansion did not find entire favor 
with him. He would have preferred rather to intensify 
what already existed than to move the boundaries fur- 
ther out. Thus a scheme which was near to his heart, 
and which he frequently urged in conversation, was the 
raising of a fund for increasing the salaries of professors 
and tutors. He preferred this to the establishment of 
new professorships and the engagement of a larger force 
of instructors. In advocating it he used to draw a 
sketch of the lives of tlie underpaid Harvard instructors, 
which might have recalled the tales told by labor lead- 
ers of the condition of mill hands during a strike. 
It made, however, very little difference what Henry Lee 
thought as to policies of expenditure so long as Charles 



126 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

"Eliot was president, a situation wliich the colonel appre- 
ciated goodhumoredly. At a meeting of the Board of 
Overseers one day he said with his shrewd and pleasant 
smile : " I offer to the president my purse and my advice, 
and I am reminded of the two women who were grind- 
incr at the mill, — the one shall be taken and the other 
left." 

In 1879 he was invited to the dinner of the Harvard 
Club of New York. Being unable to go, he sent them 
a letter of thanks, seizing the opportunity to convey a 
humorous hint concerning the chronic impecuniosity of 
the ancient corporation: 

" I regret that circumstances prevent my availing my- 
self of the invitation of the ' Harvard Club of New 
York,' and I desire to thank them for kindly inviting 
me to their dinner, and you for your cordial expres- 
sions. 

" The recent report of President Eliot calls atten- 
tion to the growth and advance of the College since 
it was placed in the charge of the Alumni, and especially 
during: President Eliot's administration. His annual 
reports are cheering and interesting as novels; the 
moral inculcated is filial piety. 

"As to the reduction of rents and dividends just 
now threatening to arrest development and to en- 
force contraction, your Club may see fit to cheer 
the heart of the president and to render aid to your 
Alma Mater by remitting hither a fraction of your large 
revenues. 

" Anticipating the adoption of this suggestion, I beg 
to offer this acknowledgment, — 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 127 

Now is the winter of our discontent 

Made glorious summer by the sons of York." 

In the building of Memorial Hall Colonel Lee played 
a very prominent part. In January, 1866, the Finance 
Committee made him their treasurer and in July he was 
associated with the Building Committee. It was nec- 
essary to raise a large sum. People had been subscrib- 
ing during the Civil War to many funds and giving as 
much as, sometimes more than, they felt to be reasonably 
within their means ; and soon it became obvious that in 
order to raise the requisite amount it would be neces- 
sary to put out at interest the sums which came in, and 
to await gradual accretions during several years. It was 
supposed that Colonel Lee had knowledge and oppor- 
tunities for placing money to good advantage, and it 
was therefore either agreed, or at least tacitly under- 
stood, that he should invest the funds in such securities 
as seemed to him likely to fructify generously. In pur- 
suance of this he bought sundry bonds of Western 
railroads, then being rather freely issued and bearing 
attractive rates of interest, sometimes even so high as 
ten per cent. It has been said that when he accepted 
this perilous responsibility he undertook to guarantee 
the fund to the full amount received by him. If this 
very improbable statement is correct, he made a gallant 
promise, and ultimately much more than redeemed it. 

The corner-stone of the building was laid in October, 
1870, and of the ceremonies on that occasion Ralph 
Waldo Emerson wrote : 

" To-day at the laying of the corner-stone of the 
Memorial Hall at Cambridge all was well and wisely 



228 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

misrht be one-sided and indiscreet, deficient in common 
sense and practical ability. So when, in the first days 
of January, 1861, I unexpectedly received a summons to 
a position upon his staff, I was agitated by my desire 
to perform some little service for my country in the 
approaching crisis and by my reluctance to attach my- 
self to a leader whose judgment I distrusted. After a 
frank explanation of my embarrassment, finding that 
the Governor still desired my aid, I reluctantly ac- 
cepted the appointment* 

If I, a Radical, regarded Governor Andrew with dis- 
trust, what was the horror and indignation excited in 
the hearts of Conservatives at his accession to office? 
You remember their wailings and lamentations. . . . 
I i-ecall the personal expression of surprise and regret 
from friends and acquaintances at my connection with 
this supposed foolish fanatic. The whole community 
was dismayed at the imminent conflict. Conservatives 
did not believe it would have been irrepressible but for 
the fanaticism of leaders like Andrew and they hated 
and reviled him accordingly. They were right, and 
still more right were the Republicans who elected him 
Governor. If the vox populi was ever the vox Dei^ it 
was then. Governor Andrew was one of the very few 
who saw clearly through this day's business, who antici- 
pated the awful duration and dimensions of the conflict, 
and yet dared to go forward and encounter the certain 
perils, privations and anguish involved, rather than en- 
dure peace and prosperity purchased at the cost of 
self-respect. The conflict would not have been irre- 
pressible but for Andrew and such as he, the sober, 



KE^nNISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 229 

steady, country-loving, God-fearing Puritans of New 
England. 

A peace man, his first charge was to prepare for war. 
South Carolina had seceded, other Southern States had 
called conventions to consider similar action. He had 
visited Washington the previous December to gather 
information, and convinced by wliat he had observed 
there and by his conferences and subsequent corre- 
spondence with General Scott, Mr. Adams, and others, 
that war was inevitable and imminent, he sent trusty 
messengers the very day of his inauguration to the 
Governors of the other New England states to lay 
before them the information he possessed and to counsel 
them to follow his example of putting the militia on a 
war footing, ready to go to the defence of Washington 
at a day's notice ; for the War Department had been for 
eight years under the control of Jefferson Davis and of 
Floyd successively, arms and equipments had been 
transferred to Southern arsenals, the bulk of our little 
army was at the Southwest under the traitor, Twiggs ; 
Toucey had scattered our navy over distant seas, and 
our treasury was depleted. Buchanan, the abject crea- 
ture of the South, feared to act with decision ; indeed, 
so far as he was capable of feehng, he sympathized with 
the South. 

The Governor at once sifted the militia, ordering the 
discharge of every man unable or unwilUng to go into 
immediate active service ; he visited armories and in- 
spected companies ; he applied to the federal govern- 
ment to repair and arm the forts in the harbor of Boston 
and elsewhere. At Fort Winthrop there were no guns ; 



130 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

dition to the transaction above narrated, is not clear. 
Some years later, at a meeting on Commencement Day 
in the Sanders Theatre, Professor Charles Eliot Norton, as 
chairman, introduced Colonel Lee as " one to whom more 
than to any other one graduate of Harvard we owe this 
Hall." Colonel Lee, re^Dlying, passed by the excellent oc- 
casion to magnify himself by telling the full story, spoke 
only a few trifling words, and then said that the chair- 
man in calling him up, had reminded him of Hogarth's 
series of pictures called " The Good and the Idle 
Apprentice ; " as the bad apprentice was about to die 
he had reached up and bitten off his mother's ear; 
Professor Norton, who had been an apprentice in his 
(the Colonel's) counting-room, had tried to draw his 
tongue out, but he did not propose to allow this, and 
would therefore take his seat. On another occasion 
Colonel Lee loyally gave the chief credit to President 
Eliot. 

On the occasion of the presentation of the bust of Gen- 
eral William Francis Bartlett, to be placed in Memorial 
Hall, Colonel Lee, who had been on the committee for 
obtaining the bust, was naturally selected to present it, 
and made a speech which eloquently expressed the ad- 
miration which he felt for this brilliant officer, who had 
always been one of his favorite heroes. 

Not intimidated by the gentle effort which Colonel 
Lee had made in 1879 to open their pockets, the mem- 
bers of the Harvard Club of New York renewed their 
invitation in 1885 with such pressure that he went over 
to their city and made them the following speech : 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 131 

" Mr. President and Brethren : — 

" To sit at dinner with any or all of you would be a 
pleasure to any well-conditioned man, but to be sum- 
moned to address you from this platform is to me embar- 
rassing ; it is an honor, but hardly a pleasure. And why 
embarrass a would-be speechless brother, when you have 
among you natural orators hke Curtis, Evarts, Choate, 
Carter and others, gladiators trained in the arena, who 
speak as freely as they breathe. Whether the tongues 
of these transplanted New Englanders are loosened by 
the geniality of the climate, or whether they talk more 
readily, just as Travers stammered more persistently, 
'because it's a bigger city,' I know not, but their 
superior fluency designates them for speakers. 

" As to Mr. Evarts and the rest of Roger Sherman's 
descendants and their collaterals, whether named Sher- 
man, Hoar or Evarts, I have known many of them down 
to the third and fourth generation, — soldier, scholar, 
statesman, — and my experience convinces me that where 
any of the race are present, the company will be best 
entertained by listening to them. They are scattered up 
and down the land, are not sensibly affected by climate, 
and the ring of their voluble discourse circles round the 
world like the British drum-beat. 

" But, after all, this is a meeting of brothers, nursed by 
the same mother, and surely such a meeting, whether 
within the old college grounds or elsewhere, should be 
jolly and hearty and our thoughts and feelings should 
find expression in fitting words. 

" I suppose that I am expected to speak to-night for the 
Overseers, and first let me express my gratitude to you 



132 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

and to my brethren generally for the honor and privilege 
of serving on the Board for eighteen years, save one 
when I was not re-eligible. I can conceive of no posi- 
tion more honorable, no privilege more grateful to an 
ardent lover of the College. 

" The contrast between the old Board, chosen by the 
Legislature of Massachusetts, some of whom still 
lingered for the first four years of my service, and the 
new Board, elected by the Alumni, was indeed striking, 

— the contrast between efficiency and inefficiency, be- 
tween love and indifference. Read the roll of men you 
have elected for nineteen years, — the leaders in their 
several professions, the men whose counsel is eagerly 
sought and willingly paid for, — and where else will you 
find such a succession of competent and disinterested 
referees ? Bound together by mutual respect and love 
of their Alma Mater, they have been characterized by 
independence of thought and unity of spirit. 

" I am quite sure that your New York representatives 
will heartily endorse this estimate of the Board, and that 
they take the same deep interest in the meetings. Had 
you been present at the meeting when your senior rep- 
resentative read his report on the Quinquennial Cata- 
logue, witty and erudite, exposing the inconsistencies of 
the mixed Latin and English nomenclature of the 
Alumni, — when Parker, in a speech flavored with wit, 
fun and irony, extolled the august and conservative 
past, and deplored the vulgar and iconoclastic present, 

— when Adams, with sledge-hammer violence, denounced 
the use of Latin in the Catalogue and Commencement 
exercises, as a lie and a sham, the duello between these 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 133 

champions of the past and the present reminding one of 
the combat between Fitz-James and Roderick Dhu, or 
rather, between Valentine and Orson, the one practising 
every pass and ward with his keen and polished rapier, 
the other, regardless of fence, belaboring his adversary 
with a Hercules club, — or had you, at the next meeting, 
heard the debate on voluntary or compulsory worship, 
and listened to the well-considered report of Dr. Pea- 
body, the impassioned outburst of Phillips Brooks plead- 
ing for the study of the Book of Life, the only great 
book which a student at present may with impunity 
omit to open, the warning voice of Parker, as he pointed 
backward to the parting of the ways^ and summoned us 
to choose our course and not to drift, and, finally, the 
clear, comprehensive statement of the president, as in 
words which dropped from his lips like metal upon glass, 
he narrated the religious changes in the community and 
the College, and set before us distinctly the alternatives 
practicable and the objections to each, — had you as- 
sisted at these debates, you would have felt that the 
subjects were discussed earnestly and intelligently, and 
that the welfare of the College was secure in such 
hands. 

" The marvellous growth and awakening of the College 
is consequent upon the transfer of the privilege and 
responsibility of shaping its policy from the Legislature 
to the Alumni; and their wise exercise of this power 
has inspired its friends, within and without, with new 
interest and confidence ; and hence the continuous flow 
of gifts, great and small, from rich and poor, into its 
treasury. 



134 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" Of course "we must not and do not forget the 
important agency of our president, elected three 
years after the new organization, — who, by tlie by, 
never would have been elected our president by the 
old Board of Overseers ; his unceasing vigilance, his 
leader-like assurance, have determined and directed 
many of the donations. Some words of Emerson on 
character apply to him : 

" ' The face which character wears to me is self- 
sufficingness. I revere the person who has riches, so 
that I cannot think of him as alone, or poor, or exiled, 
or unhappy, or a client, but as perpetual patron, bene- 
factor and beatified man. Character is centrality, the 
impossibiUty of being displaced or overset. Men should 
be intelligent and earnest. They must also make us 
feel that they have a controlling, happy future opening 
before them, which sheds a splendor on the passing 
hours.' 

" Oftentimes in the progress of Memorial Hall when 
I, as treasurer, held back, the president would enumerate 
my various resources in such a convincing way that 
I felt for the time embarrassed with riches, and you owe 
to him, more than to anyone else, the completion of 
that noble edifice, for less than the estimated cost and 
one year before the promised time. But he is a fanatic, 
and we run Harvard College trusting to fanaticism, pick- 
ing up here and there enthusiastic scholars willing 
to take the vows of perpetual poverty ; and this policy 
seems to me dangerous and derogatory to a great Uni- 
versity, which we are striving to build up. The com- 
pensation should be such as to invite men of scholarly 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 135 

tastes and enthusiasm, who long to become teachers 
of men, to adopt that profession, without feeling that 
by this choice they are depriving their wives and 
children of the social and educational privileges of 
the families of lawyers or physicians, or of average 
merchants. The calling of a teacher is much more 
appreciated than it was fifty years ago, but there is 
still a selfish disregard of their rightful claims, be- 
cause of their helplessness, on the part of their more 
money-getting brethren, which savors of meanness and 
hypocrisy in a community which is forever * pointing 
with pride,' as The Nation would say, to their schools 
and their colleges. We want, for Harvard College, 
to place her professors and other instructors on a 
proper footing, just to them and creditable and secure 
for us, $60,000 more per annum, or something over 
$1,000,000, and now is the opportunity you New 
Yorkers have been longing for to endow your Alma Mater. 
" I am aware that the approach of old age is stealthy ; 

No eye observes the growth or the decay, 
To-day we look as we did yesterday. 

Still I must confess that I was shocked at the president's 
complaint of the senility of the present Board of Over- 
seers, and stiU more shocked that in a torchlight pro- 
cession during the late unpleasantness. Harvard students 
bore a transparency inscribed : 

Average age of Harvard Overseers, 95 in the shade. 

Now this is absurd, as absurd as the assertion in one of 
your journals, that your Mr. Evarts ' was too old for 
a senator ' and that he ' was too old to change his mind.' 



136 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Why, your new senator is Billy Evarts, who used to 
reel off Adams' Latin Grammar at the Boston Latin 
School, — Billy Evarts, Leverett's pet, whom that good 
man snatched up and bore away to his school, — as did 
the pious Aeneas the old Anchises from the flames 
of burning Troy, — only a few years ago ; and we are 
his contemporaries. I contend that these charges are 
libellous, both as against Mr. Evarts and the Overseers. 
Still there are younger Alumni and you can, if you see 
fit, in your next election, drop some of us silver-tops and 
insert some younger graduates. Remember, however, 
that ' striving to do better, oft we mar what 's well.' 
If the president succeeds in composing the Board of 
young counsellors, I trust he may, in the words of the 
preacher, ' miss not the discourse of the elders.' 

" And now, brethren, young and old, let us drink 
to the welfare of our Alma Mater. May the youth 
within her ancient walls live mindful of her motto : 

" ' Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the 
quiet and still air of delightful studies.' " 

Another speech which he made, and which has been 
preserved, was given at the Harvard Commencement in 
1884: 

" Brethren : — 

" Two years ago we enjoyed the presence of Mr. Wil- 
liam Thomas, then the oldest living graduate, who in 
his boyhood had conversed with Grandfather Cobb, who 
had in his youth listened to the talk of Peregrine White 
born on board the ' Mayflower.' 

" Now your president has imbibed the idea that I go 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 137 

back to ' the time whereof the memory of man runneth 
not to the contrary,' that I remember Peregrine White in 
the flesh (and he was fleshy) ; but you will allow that he 
has overestimated my age, as well as some of my other 
attributes. As to the charge of being both young and 
old, I can only say that, however I may appear to others, 
when I stroll through the College Yard and look up to 
the windows of HoUis 11, not even Brother Sibley could 
convince me that I have been five years out of college, 
much less that I have been associated with the class 
which graduated fifty years ago under circumstances 
much more creditable to them than to the College. 
Neither this class nor their associates will ever forget 
the discreditable chapter in the history of Harvard, when 
an accountable act of insubordination of a mature Fresh- 
man, provoked by an unmature prig of a tutor, was 
fomented inlo a general rebellion, involving the sus- 
pension of one whole class, the decimating of the other 
three classes, the alienation of all the undergraduates, 
of many members of the Faculty and of the Overseers, 
and the disgust of the public. The efforts of the Sen- 
iors as peacemakers, welcomed by the president, were 
rewarded by the expulsion of eight of their best men, 
because their report, endorsed by most of the Overseers 
as true, reflected severely upon the president. Fifty 
years have passed, and that report would be re-endorsed 
by most, if not all, who were then undergraduates. I 
am no believer in papal infallibility, — ' Veritas ' is our 
motto, and it should inspire all investigating commit- 
tees, whether composed of undergraduates, of Overseers, 
or of members of the Corporation. 



138 MEMOm OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" With this class died two of the famous institutions 
of Harvard, — the ' Medical Faculty ' or ' Med. Facs.,' as 
they were generally called, a learned society of which 
the Emperor of Russia, General Jackson, and many other 
exalted personages were Honorary Members, and the 
Harvard Washington Corps, whose emblazoned flag, 
with its ' Tarn Marti, quam Mercuric ' legend, had 
always been borne aloft, however the young bearer 
may have staggered under it. I recollect well the last 
commander, the tall, gaunt Kentuckian, Robert Wick- 
liffe, the grim warrior Nat West and the rest of the 
handsome young officers as they issued forth from 
Stoughton and marched to the parade for the last 
time. I have witnessed many brilliant pageants, but 
none so impressive as the parades of the Harvard 
Washington Corps. There was one tune the old Bri- 
gade Band used to play as the company marched through 
the College grounds, which always struck me as highly 
appropriate, — ' I see tliem on their winding way.' ' Old 
Quin,' as he was universally called, was wont to speak 
of these societies as the ' safety valves ' of the College, 
and just why he dissolved them, it would have puzzled 
him to explain. 

" Apropos of Plymouth and the Harvard Washington 
Corps there is a college tradition illustrating President 
Kirkland's humanity. At a Faculty meeting held just 
before President Monroe's visit to Massachusetts, the 
president overhearing some talk of expelling Sever, the 
captain of the corps and a Plymouth man, exclaimed: 
* Sever! expel Sever? Oh no! we can't get along with- 
out Sever,' and so the captain was saved to parade his 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 139 

corps and to escort President Monroe, who was so de- 
lighted with the martial display that he offered Sever a 
West Point cadetship. That was decUned for family 
reasons, but the gallant captain's gi*atitude to President 
Kirkland has found expression in a Sever scholarship 
and the stately Sever Hall, the chief architectural adorn- 
ment of our College grounds, upon whose portals might 
be appropriately inscribed the motto of the corps : ' Tam 
Marti, quam Mercuric' 

" First impressions are indelible, and I always think 
of these semi-centenarian graduates as Juniors, for such 
they were when I entered college. I hear the stentorian 
Fox upon the Delta, and see Joe Sargent scudding along 
with the foot ball ; Hinckley flourishes anew his thunder- 
ing bolus; Colman appears as Fanny Kemble; Tom Gush- 
ing, witli his Napoleon figure, drills me in the school of 
the soldier; Sam Rodman stalks along as if he had his 
eye on a plover and his hand on his double-barrelled 
Joe Manton; Gassett, before he leads the Pierians, lisps, 
* Excuse the air from my flute ; ' Henry Wayne, late at 
prayers, marches by our Freshman seats, a model of 
youthful beauty; fair-faced Sam Parkman, beloved of 
gods and men, waves the flag while the Corps salutes 
it; Sam Felton pokes along abstractedly, as if he were 
pondering how best to forward our Eighth Regiment 
from Philadelphia to Washington now his bridges are 
burned ; there beam in the face of Tom Donaldson the 
beatitudes of the peacemaker and the pure in heart, but he 
looks too delicate to stand the wear and tear of head and 
heart he is destined to undergo ^)ro arts etfocis; Charles 
Wheelwright has, with other generous comrades, shared 



140 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

the penalty inflicted on the best of his classmates and 
declined to take his degree. One claim I make on the 
friendship of my Juniors, as I fondly call them, — I 
fought for that degree year after year in the Board of 
Overseers, until at last the prayer of his loving class- 
mates was granted, and the name of this hero, who died 
that others might live, graces tlie College Catalogue. 
One of the classmates most zealous in this effort was 
the amiable, modest, pious pastor wlio has just now 
passed away. Such, brethren, are some of the pictures 
which flit before my mind's eye, of the Class of 1834, 
more interesting perhaps to them and to me than to you. 

"Mr. President, this is a case of mistaken identity, 
which recalls an incident in my travels some forty years 
ago. I was walking through Berkshire with two repu- 
table comrades, one a clergyman in good standing ; we 
had reached Pittsfield and I was sunning myself in 
front of the hotel, when one of the natives, sidling up to 
me, presently inquired in a confidential tone, — ' When 
will the circus be here ? ' Gratified as I was to be mis- 
taken for the dignified Ring Master or the facetious 
Clown, I was constrained to disabuse my rustic admirer, 
and to confess then as now, *I don't belong to the 
circus.' " 

Prejudice against college graduates from time to 
time finds expression in the suggestion that they are 
less fitted for active life and business affairs tlian are 
persons not handicapped by so much education. This 
talk happened to be making itself heard more than usual 
some twenty years ago, and it stirred Colonel Lee to a 
response which he sent to The Nation : 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 141 

" For fifteen years I kept an old-fashioned store on 
the wharf, and traded with the East Indies and South 
America. I was myself a college graduate, and at that 
time, — over fifty years ago, — the merchants were 
averse to receiving graduates, preferring to take youths 
in their early teens, and insisting upon more or less 
menial work, such as opening and sweeping out the 
counting-room, trimming lamps, and frequently blacking 
boots, tasks imposed upon these unpaid apprentices 
partly from economy, partly to supple the boy and take 
the nonsense out of him. We adopted a porter to per- 
form all these chores ; and, partly to give them a chance, 
preferred college graduates to boys a few years younger 
fresh from school. There was never an instance of 
bumptiousness or effeminacy; their duties within and 
without doors were performed more efficiently and more 
intelligently than by their associates whose minds had 
not been educed in college ; they did not need so long 
an apprenticeship. 

" If you will look into the counting-houses of bankers 
and brokers nowadays, you will find principals and 
clerks mostly college bred; you will find most of the 
factory treasurers, many of their selling agents, many of 
the railroad presidents, college bred. 

" Some years ago you informed your readers that in 
Germany the boys educated in the gymnasiums for 
college, while surpassed at first in mathematics by boj'S 
educated in what we should call ' technical ' schools, 
eventually outstripped them. So it is in any sort of 
business, — the general training must tell in proportion 
as one rises to greater responsibilities and is called upon 



142 MEMOIR OF COLOXEL HENRY LEE 

to solve more abstruse problems. Were I in search of a 
partner, I would choose not only a college graduate, but 
also a trained lawyer, because of his training, which pre- 
pares him to understand any subject presented better 
than any layman can. Among my friends now past 
threescore, those who for any reason went from school 
to counting-room have never ceased to regret it, because 
of their fewer resources outside of business, their real or 
fancied disabilities, as well as for the loss of comrade- 
ship, which becomes more and more sad as years roll 
on." 

The graduates repaid Colonel Lee's loyalty to them 
by an abundant loyalty to him, manifested in many 
ways. His rank for scholarship, at the time of gradu- 
ation, did not entitle him to a place in the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society ; but many years later he was elected to 
honorary membership, which was fully as gratifying. 
In 1867 he was chosen upon the Board of Overseers 
and was re-elected at the close of his first six years ; 
then, in accordance with the statute, he passed a year 
out of office, and was thereafter immediately re-elected 
in 1880, and again re-elected at the close of that term, 
so that his service extended from 1867 to 1892, inclu- 
sive, with the break only of the statutory year of recess. 
It is unfortunate that no record remains of the many 
services rendered and the many speeches made by him 
during this prolonged term of office. He was always 
in his place at the meetings, he was always interested 
in whatever business was in hand, and he constantly 
interjected the remarks and short speeches which are 
customary in that body. These sagacious, trenchant 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 143 

and humorous contributions to the debates never failed 
to delight the Board and often to influence opinion. 
But the memory of such fleeting remarks is evanescent, 
and those who recall them in a general way cannot 
recall them in particular. The writer happens to re- 
member a single one. The debate was upon the ques- 
tion of compulsory morning prayers. The persons who 
did not desire compulsion had been quite eloquent upon 
the point that it was very disagreeable for the students 
to feel under a rigid obligation to get up in the morning 
and attend a species of roll call. Colonel Lee at last 
rose and said, substantially : — "I am very pleased to 
hear that tliis duty is disagreeable for the students. 
This new notion of making everything perfectly easy 
for them and letting them do, and not do, just as they 
choose has been carried too far. I am very glad indeed 
to find some one act which is disagreeable to them, and 
I should like to compel every one of them to perform it 
once every day." He was probably right ; there was at 
the time a relaxation, or rather an abandonment, of 
discipline wliich was working havoc in the undergrad- 
uate department, and which soon had to be drastically 
corrected. 

In 1892, at the time of the organization of the Harvard 
Graduates' Magazine, Colonel Lee's services were natu- 
rally sought in the honorable capacity of president. He 
accepted the post and continued to hold it for several 
years. 

A more active literary effort than this honorary office 
was his contribution to the " Harvard Book." In 1875 
that pretentious publication appeared in two enormous 



144 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

tomes, with pictures but without an index, and was 
sold at a price which probably most purchasers after- 
wards regretted that they had paid. The list of con- 
tributors contains many who would be less well known 
than they are, had their other literary work been as 
perfunctory as that which they furnished to those 
volumes. Colonel Lee, however, buried in this stately 
mausoleum a really admirable paper upon University 
Hall. Covering twenty-five spacious pages, it is one 
of the longest contributions, and one of the few read- 
able ones. It must have cost him much serious and con- 
scientious labor ; it is, of course, thorough and written 
with a fine, sympathetic feeling; it is also sparkling 
with humor and wit, and is full of reminiscences pic- 
turesque, vivid and amusing; the delineation of some 
of the professors and instructors is such a bit of dra- 
matic drawing of character and of personal appearance 
as is rarely met with. It is a pity that such a piece of 
work should be put away, practically out of sight. 

Colonel Lee's numerous and useful services to the 
University at last received a well-deserved recognition 
from the Corporation, when that body proposed to confer 
upon liim the degree of Doctor of Laws. Everyone was 
heartily glad that this should be done, and the distinc- 
tion has never been offered with the more universal 
good will of the graduate body. But Colonel Lee him- 
self, after much consideration, determined not to accept 
it. He said that he was not a scholar, that the degree 
should not be made common by being conferred upon 
any persons except those of high scholarship or of some 
very marked distinction in other walks of life. His 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 145 

friends insisted with him that his modesty was quixotic, 
that his services to the College were only imperfectly 
rewarded by this honor, that his own personal quahfica- 
tions were abundant ; and they begged him to accept it. 
The temptation must have been very great, for he pre- 
pared a speech for the occasion ; yet his firm belief that 
it was better for the College not to establish the pre- 
cedent of giving a degree to a private citizen not note- 
worthy for scholarly attainments controlled his final 
decision. He resolutely declined. His action, however, 
could not do away with the fact that practically he had 
had tlie honor of the degree, and that in addition thereto 
he had the much higher honor of definitively setting it 
aside on the ground of principle, — casting Caesar on the 
Lupercal quite into the shade I The speech which was 
not spoken may be printed : 

" Thanks for your kind words and to you, brethren, 
for your cordial reception, but this is not a day of exul- 
tation to me, but of meditation, and, I must say, of 
humiliation. 

" Fifty-nine years ago, on Commencement Day, in the 
old meeting-house which few of you can remember, (it 
stood between Wadsworth House and Dane Hall), I 
heard an orator, speaking for the Master's Degree, say : 
* Master of Arts ! master of no art under the sun.' The 
speaker's words have lodged in my memory these all but 
sixty years. And now at the end of that long period, 
near the close of life, when hope of achievement and 
progress lies far behind, these words ring in my ears, 
as, dazed, I hear myself hailed by the highest title 
the University can bestow. This is the only mode the 



146 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

College has of conferring honor; it has extended the 
degree from the scholar, for whom it was primarily 
intended, to high officials, to distinguished guests and 
to heroes. I was present in the College Chapel that 
same year (1833) when the LL.D. was conferred on 
Andrew Jackson, and a pretty scandal it made. But 
Andrew Jackson was President, and so, by precedent, 
entitled to the compliment. Of late years the endeavor 
has been, as it should be, to confine the degree to 
scholars of distinction, and I regret to see the College 
retrograde, and bestow the degree inappropriately. 

'T will be recorded for a precedent, 
And many an error, by the same example, 
Will rush into the state. 

" There are two circumstances in my life which have 
given me much pride and pleasure, — my relations with 
the Alumni, and my relations with the men who went 
to the war, especially those who went from Harvard. 
So, year by year, as I come up a pilgrim to my Mecca 
and roam the old College grounds, I am made happy 
by these ties of brotherhood, and I doubt if among all 
the sons of our Alma Mater there is one who gets more 
cheer and comfort from these anniversaries. I have 
received so many marks of friendship and esteem from 
these brethren that I am inclined to attribute this dis- 
tinction to their blind partiality, working openly or 
covertly to that end. 

" ' Blessings brighten as they take their flight,' and 
it may be that, considering our cordial relations, my 
brethren wished to give me a good send-off. But let 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 147 

them be undeceived ; I come from a long-lived family, 
and one upon the list of graduates of my race, Judge 
Joseph Lee, of the Class of 1729, Hved seventy-three 
years after receiving his degree, having been for years 
the oldest living graduate. 

" Whatever my fitness, my sense of obligation is pro- 
found, it is the last and greatest of many honors which 
I have received from my fond mother and my affec- 
tionate brethren, strengthening and lengthening the tie 
between us. 

There 's that betwixt us been which men remember 
Till they forget themselves, till all 's forgot, 
Till the deep sleep falls on them in that bed 
From which no morrow's mischief knocks them up." 

At the opening of the Harvard Medical School on 
Boylston Street (already about to be superseded as in- 
sufficient after so few years !) it was natural that Colonel 
Lee should be cast for the task of representing the con- 
tributors to the fund, on whose behalf he spoke as follows : 

" Mr. President : — 

" Thanks for your invitation to be present on this 
interesting occasion, — the hundredth anniversary of 
your Medical School, and the dedication of a new build- 
ing, of fair proportions, well adapted to your wants, as 
far as a non-professional can judge. 

" You have assigned to me the honorable task of 
speaking for the contributors to the building fund. 

" I Httle thought, as I used to gaze with awe at that 
prim, solitary, impenetrable little building in Mason. 



148 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Street, and, with the aid of imaginative companions, con- 
jured up the mysteries within, that I should ever dare to 
enter and explore its interior ; nor have I yet acquired 
that relish for morbid specimens that characterized my 
lamented kinsman,^ who devoted so many years to accu- 
mulating and illustrating your pathological collection. 

" It is an ordeal for a layman, Mr. President, especially 
for one who has reached the sixth age, to be so forcibly 
reminded, as one is here, of the 

last scene of all, 
When ends this strange, eventful history, 
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything, 

and it is a further ordeal to assume to speak for others, 
whose motives for aiding you I may not adequately set 
forth. 

" This I can say, that we are citizens of no mean city, 
that private frugality and public liberality have char- 
acterized the inhabitants of this ' Old Town of Boston,' 
from the days of the good and wise John Winthrop, 
■whose own substance was consumed in founding his 
colony, to the present time. Down through these two 
centuries and a half the multiform and ever-increasing 
needs of the community have been discovered and sup- 
plied, not by government, but by patriotic citizens, who 
have given of their time and substance to promote the 
common weal, remembering ' that the body is not one 
member, but many,' and that the members should have 
the same care, one for another. It is tliis public spirit, 

1 John Barnard Swett Jackson, of the class of 1825, M.D. 1829, Pro- 
fessor of Pathological Anatomy and Shattuck Professor of Morbid 
Anatomy ; also Dean of the Medical Society. 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 149 

manifested in its heroic form in our Civil War, that has 
made this dear old Commonwealth what we all know it 
to be, despite full many slanders. Far distant be the 
day when this sense of brotherhood shall be lost! 

" Purple and fine linen are well, if one can afford 
them; but let not Dives forget Lazarus at his gate. 

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 

" Whatever doubts may arise as to some of our benevo- 
lent schemes, our safety and progress rest upon the pro- 
motion of sound learning, and we feel assured that the 
increased facilities furnished by this ample building 
for acquiring and disseminating knowledge of our fear- 
ful and wonderful frame, will be improved by your 
brethren. 

" Some of the papers read before the International 
Medical Congress in London, two years ago, impressed 
me deeply with the many wants of the profession. And 
who are more likely to have their wants supplied ? For 
the phj'sician is not regarded, as in some countries, as 
the successor to the barber surgeon, and his fees slipped 
into his upturned palm as if he were a mendicant or a 
menial. 

" Dining vnth two Englishmen, one an Oxford pro- 
fessor, the other the brother of a lord, a few years since, 
I was surprised to hear their views of the social stand- 
ing of the medical profession, and could not help con- 
trasting their position here, where, if not all aristocrats, 
they are all constitutional, and some of them hereditary, 
monarchs, accompanied by honor, love, obedience, troops 



150 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

of friends. But however ranked, physicians have the 

same attributes the world over. I have had occasion to 

see a good deal of English, French, German and Italian 

physicians under very trying circumstances, and have 

been touched by their affectionate devotion to their 

patients. 

"The good physician is our earliest and our latest 

friend ; he listens for our first and our last breath j in 

all times of bodily distress and danger we look to him 

to relieve us. Neither ' the pestilence that walketh in 

darkness ' nor ' the sickness that wasteth at noonday ' 

deter him. 

Alike to him is time or tide, 
December's snow, or July's pride; 
Alike to him is tide or time, 
Moonless midnight, or matin prime. 

"The faithful pursuit of every profession involves 
sacrifice of self, but the man who calls no hour his own, 
who consecrates his days and nights to suffering hu- 
manity, treads close in the footsteps of his Master. 

" No wonder, then, that the bond between them and 
their patients is so strong, no wonder that we respond 
cheerfully to their call, in gratitude for what they have, 
and in sorrow for what they have not, been able to do to 
preserve the lives and to promote the health of those 
dear to us. And how could money be spent more eco- 
nomically than to promote the further enlightenment of 
the medical profession? What better legacy can we 
leave our children, and our children's children, than an 
illumined Medical Faculty?" 



CHAPTER VI 

PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 

If the foregoing pages, narrating the public activity 
of Colonel Lee, have duly fulfilled their purpose, they 
have shown him as standing out against the background 
of Boston. When he was in his prime Boston was at her 
best, a great town, not yet developed into a provincial 
city ; she was in the period of her moral and intellectual 
efflorescence. Edinburgh, Florence and a few other 
large towns and small cities have had like periods when 
their citizens can be "local" without being narrow, 
because for a while the locality is the scene of strenu- 
ous moral and intellectual activities. 

Colonel Lee, then, was distinctively Bostonian. Colo- 
nel T. Wentworth Higginson says : " He was as typical 
a Bostonian as could be found since the death of Colonel 
Perkins." He could have been at home amid no other 
surroundings, nor in any other society ; he would have 
sickened and wasted away of unfitness in any other place 
than eastern Massachusetts. Sir Walter Scott said that 
if in any year he could not set his foot upon the heather, 
he should die; Mr. Lee might not have been quite 
willing to say that if he could not very regularly see the 
dome of the State House, he should die, but those who 
knew him would have said it for him. He knew all the 



152 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

old annals of New England, and was saturated with the 
spirit of the bygone generations ; he knew, with much 
accuracy, the histories of all the old families, not after 
the dry and accurate fashion of the genealogist, but with 
a vivid appreciation of the individuals. He knew where 
still ran the streams of the good blood of the old-time 
worthies as a sportsman knows the trout streams of the 
country. He could point out among his fellow-citizens 
all the descendants of the governors, the divines, the 
Indian fighters, the soldiers in the Canadian invasions, 
the ship-captains and privateersmen, the merchants and 
supercargoes of colonial and revolutionary days, and 
could tell just what traits ought to be looked for in the 
offspring, if heredity is a trustworthy science. All the 
traditions were at his tongue's end. All the old houses 
and streets and byways were as familiar to his mind's 
eye as were the newest buildings and the latest avenues 
about him. He was in ready, natural touch with people 
of New England lineage, and could drop in a moment 
into familiar and intimate chat with anyone, citizen, 
villager or farmer, who was a son of the soil of Massa- 
chusetts. This, however, is by no means to say that he 
always agreed with them ; far from it ; New Englanders 
are not apt to be of notably accordant dispositions, and 
Colonel Lee was true to the blood in this particular. 
But a moral kinship was easily established, and a fair 
field was opened for agreement or disagreement, as it 
might happen. A close diagnosis might show that in 
points of feeling, of human sympathy, of the emotions, 
he was broadly in touch with mankind, but that intel- 
lectually he often found it haixi, sometimes impossible, 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 153 

to understand an attitude or opinions widely different 
from his own. His breadth was of the heart, his limita- 
tions lay in his opinions. The story of his life is in 
spirit as much as by geography the story of a Massa- 
chusetts worthy. But, though his career brought him 
thus chiefly into contact with his lifelong neighbors, he 
was not thereby rendered narrowly local. English lit- 
erature and history he knew well, of course ; more than 
a little of that of France, and something of that of 
Italy. On several occasions he travelled in Europe 
where Italy especially charmed him, and the antiquities 
of London gave him much pleasure ; but beyond all 
other things, naturally, he revelled in the Parisian and 
Italian theatres ; he spoke French with some fluency, 
and gathered a good knowledge of Italian ; and the rec- 
ollection of the actors and actresses whom he saw 
abroad constituted one of his great pleasures at home. 
Colonel Lee did not contemplate with that indif- 
ference which is called philosophy the infusion of 
strange bloods into the pure old stock of New Eng- 
land. " There was a time," he said, " and that within 
my memory, when all the inhabitants of New England, 
and especially of the old town of Boston, were descend- 
ants of those brave, pious men, who quitted pleasant 
homes m their native land to encounter the dangers of 
the seas, of savage beasts and still more savage men, 
to endure the pangs of homesickness, the hardships of 
wilderness life, the rigors of the climate, for conscience's 
sake. But now that we have become the asylum of all 
those afflicted or distressed in mind, body or estate, the 
dumping ground of the world, it is getting to be diffi- 



154 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

cult to distinguish between the descendants of those 
hardy pioneers, . . . the rightful heirs of this goodly- 
heritage, and the new-comers, driven by starvation or 
by justice hither, luxuriating in the abundance and 
freedom created by the unceasing toil of head and hand 
of eight generations of our ancestors. I feel the more 
sensitive on this point inasmuch as the prevalence of 
my name among the Mongolian immigrants will prob- 
ably lead to confusion between my descendants and those 
of Wang or Ching Lee." 

No remarkable achievement has been related of 
Colonel Lee; he could not sway the crowd of citizens 
in Faneuil Hall or in the old Music Hall as Wendell 
Phillips could ; he neither sought public office nor per- 
mitted it to be forced upon him ; he was no politician, 
nor ever assumed the role of the "power behind the 
throne ; " yet, though he did none of these things, his 
fellow-citizens gave weighty consideration to his opin- 
ions. It was chiefly among his own acquaintance that 
his words were respectfully listened to, and his aid 
and co-operation often urgently demanded. His friends 
were the men who led and controlled the community 
and furnished it with its ideas and its arguments. Thus 
his direct influence upon the mass of the populace was 
never great, but he influenced those who influenced 
others. During the third quarter of his life Boston was 
still of such size and of such social homogeneity that it 
it was quite possible for one of her people to fill the 
peculiar r6le of the leading citizen. To this distinction 
Colonel Lee could for many years have laid just claim, 
not an undisputed claim, doubtless, for some other 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 155 

persons would have had their own favorites to present 
for the position. As in the case of Miltiades, many in- 
dividuals (or their friends for them) might have put 
their own names first, but each would have put Colonel 
Lee's name second. 

The writer asked a gentleman who was as intimate 
with Colonel Lee as anyone now living, what was his 
distinguishing trait, wliich might be supposed to have 
gained for him his high place in the community. The 
reply was : " His integrity, — his extraordinary integrity ; 
I have seen nothing like it in any other man." In our 
business community mere honesty is necessarily a com- 
mon quality ; if most business men did not play their 
hands with fair regard for the statutes of the State and 
the rules of the game, the game could not go on. It 
was not, however, of such merchantable honesty as this 
that the gentleman spoke, but of something greatly 
higher, something which may not be described in words, 
but which everyone must understand. If a man has it, 
it has come to him in his nature, not as the outcome of 
his intelligence or his good sense, or even of his respect 
for the ordinary rules of raorahty. So, also, if forced 
in any emergency of affairs to impale oneself upon a 
direct lie or an inconvenient truth, most Americans 
and Englishmen will take courage for the truth. But 
Colonel Lee was born with a terrible propensity for 
truth, a propensity to which he yielded until it became 
a passion that completely mastered him. It was so 
natural to him that perhaps he really deserved no credit 
for it I It got him into trouble at times, inevitably. 
For, after all, it is our virtues which we have most 



156 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

reason to fear. Our evil tendencies we know, and we 
may, if we choose, combat and control them ; but our 
virtues, unsuspected of evil, steal upon us unawares 
and treacherously entice us into snares and difficulties. 
Colonel Lee was never upon his guard against his good 
qualities. Had he been so, it would have been effort 
wasted, for he could never have become what by polite- 
ness is called " diplomatic." He found it hard even 
to conceal his feelings, and impossible to dissemble 
them. It must have been a dull man indeed who 
could talk with him long without finding out what he 
really felt. 

Of course, having such dangerous traits. Colonel Lee 
gave offense and made enemies. It was to his credit 
that he did so ; a man who is really good for anything 
and who is active in public affairs and in business, and 
constantly touching the community at many points, 
ought to stir resentments occasionally. What is really 
astonisliing is that one so outspoken and so uncompro- 
mising should have brought upon himself so little ill 
will. But he seemed to claim, and to be accorded, the 
privilege of free speech, like a prerogative ; he was for- 
given till seventy times seven, and indeed very much 
oftener, and enjoyed general popularity and the warm 
affection of a much larger circle of friends than most 
persons acquire in the difficult passage through a not 
always amiable world. This was due to two causes. 
The lesser was that he never spoke in malice or from 
any unworthy motive ; he never had a secret or selfish 
purpose to serve ; he never sought to depress another 
in order that he might be exalted by comparison. His 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 157 

honest assault undoubtedly often wounded deeply, yet did 
not excite vindictive animosity. The way in which his 
attacks were taken was in some measure indicative of the 
character of the man attacked. Thus he was often very 
severe upon his kinsman, Senator Lodge, to whom he 
wrote things which the senator must have felt to be 
unjust and perhaps personally unkind. But Mr. Lodge, 
while responding with abundant force and spirit, had 
the magnanimity to stifle personal hostility. The second 
and more important cause was Colonel Lee's broad and 
genuine kindliness of nature. His letters could not be 
illumined by his countenance, but any sting in his spoken 
words was almost always alleviated by the expression of 
underlying goodness of heart, and oftentimes the indi- 
vidual who winced under his satire would have felt sure 
enough of receiving an act of personal friendship from 
him, had occasion called for it. Moreover, he was well 
known to have somewhat the April day temperament ; 
shadows drove across the scene ; and there were days 
when he was irritable, — wherein he was not peculiar I 
Withal he was impulsive, and did not mitigate his feel- 
ings in the utterance of them ; on the contrary, by his 
faciUty in the use of expressive language, he was tempted 
sometimes to let his words overpaint his opinion. Alto- 
gether, the world was very fond of Colonel Lee, and 
gave him leave to say what he thought, — which it does 
not do to many of us. Col. T. Wentworth Higginson, 
in appreciative words, said : " He had his own way many 
years. He was a unique personage in Boston. Every- 
body liked him and would stand more independence from 
him than from anybody else." 



158 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

It is an easy, pleasant and virtuous action for A to 
give away the money of B ; but if B fails to ratify the 
gift by his cheque, A is apt to be annoyed, and sometimes 
utters depreciatory remarks concerning B's liberality. 
Colonel Lee occasionally vexed our excellent friend A in 
this manner, for he chose always to exercise his habitual 
independence alike in giving and in refusing, but at the 
end of any twelvemonth he had usually parted with a 
considerable total sum. In fact, his giving was some- 
times upon such a scale that it entailed economy in 
personal luxuries, which he might justly enough have 
allowed to himself before he began paying for others. 
As a rule, his benefactions were not such as to be heard 
of far outside of the persons concerned. It was, indeed, 
general knowledge that his contributions to Harvard 
College were large, but it was not equally well known 
that he paid the expenses of many students. Also those 
who carry round subscription papers were well aware 
that he gave freely in those political campaigns where 
questions of principle were at stake, always, however, 
accompanying the payment with the emphatic stipula- 
tion that no part of it should be spent in any corrupt 
manner, and never afterward exacting any direct or in- 
direct advantage, in political influence for himself. In- 
dividuals were his beneficiaries rather than institutions. 
Thus, one of his relatives had experienced more ill than 
good fortune in his affairs, and as years advanced upon 
him he was doing only a moderately lucrative business 
as a cotton broker. " I cannot bear," said Colonel Lee, 

" to see running about the streets with a bundle 

of cotton under his arm trying to get an order from a 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 159 

mill treasurer I It must not go on so." Accordingly he 
went to the gentleman and said : " How much are you 
making per annum, and is it enough ? " Receiving the 
reply, he said : " Well, if you will retire and hve com- 
fortably, I will pay you that sum annually during your 
life." The offer was accepted in the same spirit in 
which it was made. After the death of Judg-e Charles 
Jackson, whose sister was Colonel Lee's mother, some 
unforeseen complications rendered it necessary to sell 
the handsome old house and garden of the judge, on 
Chauncy Place, — one of the beautiful town houses of 
the old days. Mr. Lee bought the property for joint 
account of himself and his brother, and after holding it 
a very short time, he sold it at a handsome profit. He 
said, however, that he did not like to make money out 
of his Jackson cousins, and he distributed between the 
surviving daughters of the judge his share of the gain. 
Their notes of thanks for so rare an act of cousinly good 
feeling are among the papers of Mr, Lee's estate. No 
one knows much of acts thus privately done, but there 
is no question that the list was long of those who at one 
time or another owed comfort and relief from mental 
anxiety to Colonel Lee. " Humanity, thy name is Lee," 
said one of his friends to him one day, in well-deserved 
praise. It was not alone financial generosity that the 
words signified, — rather it was the observant thought- 
fulness which suggested and guided the action, the spirit 
of friendliness which induced tlie giving. " His sub- 
scriptions," says Col. T. W. Higginson, "were always 
on a large scale. He would say : ' It is a great deal 
easier to raise this money in a few large sums than in 



160 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

many small ones. I will be one of ten to give f 1,000.' 
He had found that an enterprise was much more likely 
to be carried through in that way." 

In conversation Colonel Lee was charming, but un- 
fortunatel}'-, as is apt to be the case, the charm can only 
be brought back as a delightful memory by those who 
used to hear him ; in fact, to-day there are hardly half- 
a-dozen survivors who can recall it in its best estate, for 
no man (barring the avowed conversationalist) can talk 
to others so well as he talks to his friends and contem- 
poraries. Like most men who talk well, he was very 
fond of talking. Colonel Higginson laments that his 
long Sunday talks with Mr. Waldo Higginson have left 
no trace. Not less is it to be regretted that no echo can 
bring back any words from the long chats which he used 
to have at Beverly Farms with Dr. O. W. Holmes. 
" For seventeen summers," he said, " we have been 
neighbors . . . holding stated meetings every Sunday 
after church. . . . At these weekly sessions discussion 
ranged far and wide. . . . There was on each side an 
eagerness to talk which had to be regulated, after par- 
liamentary usage, by the mistress of the house." At 
Beverly Farms also he used to chat, in the leisure hours 
of the vacation months, with Mrs. Parkman, with Mrs. 
Bell, the brilliant daughter of Rufus Choate, and with 
Mrs. Whitman, all his neighbors. Such people put him 
at his best ; but he talked well with everyone, and was 
as neighborly with old " Uncle " John Larcom as with 
anyone else. He was one of those men whom one would 
cross a muddy street to exchange a word with, and go 
away surprised and disappointed if by a raie chance 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 161 

something keen or picturesque or entertaining had not 
been said by the colonel. Sometimes such an ill chance 
occurred, of course ; Homer is the j)recedent, and Colo- 
nel Lee was not always in the mood ; but, as a rule, it 
was a wise speculation to cross the street. People used 
to repeat what " Harry Lee said this morning," and pass 
from mouth to mouth his " good things," as is the habit 
concerning witty sayings. One comes later expecting to 
glean much where there has been such luxuriance ; but 
he gathers hardly anything ; he finds a general reminis- 
cence with no memory of particulars; what was said passed 
with the passing of the incident which called it forth. 

Colonel Lee's talk was often of contemporaneous 
events, and then it was sure to be fresh and breezy, and 
not unfrequently the breeze was keen from the east. 
Often it was of the old times and the old places, the 
people long ago dead, the stories and gossip of bygone 
days ; upon these topics he was rambling, discursive, and 
would run on as long as his hearer had leisure to listen, 
while his face expressed the infinite pleasure which he 
found in such converse. With him perished not only an 
infinite wealth of knowledge about old Boston and the 
old families and odd characters of the town and its 
neighborhood, but also the chance of having this knowl- 
edge displayed in a singularly fascinating shape. For 
there was nothing of the Dr. Dryasdust about Colonel 
Lee. He may have known a little less, — probably in 
most cases a great deal more, — than such learned men, 
and known it perhaps a little more or a little less accu- 
rately. The beauty was that he knew it abundantly, in 
a very picturesque way, and that he had the power of 

11 



162 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

vivid description to a very remarkable degree. His 
knowledge was not merely biographical ; he seemed to 
know how our ancestors dressed and walked, how they 
talked, how they fared in their business ventures, what 
were their friendships and alliances, their heartburnings 
and their quarrels among themselves. Few of us see 
our contemporaries in such lively colors, or can describe 
them in such gossipy phrase, as he could bring to bear 
upon these ancient worthies, — or unworthies, as the 
case might be. 

Not less happy was he in his capacity to rebuild the 
demolished houses, to restore the old ways and byways, 
to replace the old gardens and trees and fences. Such 
was his gift of word painting that he seemed to have 
been a caller in the antique rooms, to have clanged the 
brazen knockers on the colonial front doors and tasted 
the sea-tossed Madeira or the native rum, liberally dis- 
pensed at all hours of the day at the mahogany side- 
boards. It was really quite wonderful to listen to him 
for an hour, — he would let you have two or three hours, 
if you could, — when he got talking of these things. 
Every adjective between the covers of the dictionary 
seemed his servant, and in each instance precisely that 
one which he needed came at his call. Often it was some 
rare and ancient word, which came creaking up, dusty 
with age, as though it had been laid away for generations 
in order to perform a perfect duty in this especial case. 
This was a natural gift which also undoubtedly he had 
carefully cultivated and brought to great excellence. 

With like accuracy and picturesqueness he observed 
and described the contemporaries whom he saw about 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 163 

him. " His judgments," says Colonel T. "W". Higginson, 
" were often whimsical and often unreasonable, but 
pungent and telling. ... I would say in connection 
with his descriptions of character that he was a man too 
impetuous and of too strong prejudices to be strictly 
just, but he was ready to be generous even to oppo- 
nents." It was rarely a minute analysis of character 
that he made, he did not delve into the obscure recesses 
of men's minds and trace subtle influences ; but the out- 
ward man, with his visible and controlling characteris- 
tics, impressed himself dramatically upon Colonel Lee, 
and what he saw dramatically he described dramatically. 
To-day he stigmatized the " saponaceous speeches " of 
Governor Long, to-morrow he spoke of a certain person 
as " a retired drunkard ; " the house of Governor 
Hancock was for him " the mellow, time-worn, sunny- 
faced old Hancock house." A lady who, with New 
England ambition for the good and the intellectual, 
had somewhat over-trained and over-educated her chil- 
dren, said to him one day : " My son says that he was at 
your house to-day, Colonel Lee ; I hope he behaved 
well ? " " Excellently, my dear madam, excellently ; " he 
replied, "but I thought that I could see the mark of 
the collar." Of another person he said: "How hesi- 
tatingly old, or rather young, T. B. walks ! Tall, stal- 
wart fellow, graceful as when he played Gessler, — 
what a thin film comes between him and society ! " 
Again: "A frozen looking couple! His figure is 
meagre, his arms hang out stiffly, his nose is red this 
chilly morning. . . . The two together hardly measure 
three feet in breadth." And still again : " There goes a 



164 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

husband nicely, fashionably, dressed ; but his recent ad- 
vancement is betrayed by the tired stoop of generations 
of heavily burdened laborers." 

Concerning a character once well known and much 
ridiculed in Boston Mr. Lee wrote : 

" George Jones (Count Joannes) may have been bom 
in New York, but when I first remember him on the 
Tremont stage in the late twenties or early thirties, he 

was son of Jones, constable, a stout man (Enghsh, 

I think) with a red wig, who went to King's Chapel ; 
had another son who dragged a hand-cart. He played 
fops, etc., was a fair actor, but an inordinate thirst for 
applause led him into all sorts of follies and falsities. 
He degenerated into a mouldy, shabby-genteel, melodra- 
matic pomposity in perpetual litigation about something 
or other. He might be characterized as ' spurious '." 

Once when one of his young friends was engaged to 
be married. Colonel Lee said : " Get on your horse to- 
morrow morning and ride with me, and I will tell you 
all about the ancestors of your intended ; you ought to 
know such things, and no one else can tell you so well 
as I can." He was as good as his word; there was a 
long ride, during which the young man saw all the 
busts on pedestals as well as all the skeletons in closets, 
pertaining to the lady's family during some generations. 

In this connection, however, justice demands that it 
should be said that Mr. Lee was no lover of gossip. He 
liked to observe traits, to study character and to know 
real facts which were contributory to such observation 
and study. But idle tales were so distasteful to him that 
it was a tactless man who offered them for his entertain- 



TERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 165 

ment; and malicious, uncharitable whisperings found 
him not only deaf, but hostile. 

Colonel T. Wentworth Higginson says that when he 
undertook to edit the " Harvard Memorial Biographies," 
Colonel Lee was very efficient in helping him to choose 
the writers, " often summing up the man's character in 
advance. ... I should add that in that hour's talk with 
me about the ' Memorial Biographies,' in speaking of men 
I did not know, he would often jump up and say : ' This 
is the way he would walk down State Street,' and after 
each imitation I would feel acquainted with the man." 
He had also an equally vivid power of facial imitation. 
An instance of his strong habit of speech occurred at 
one of these interviews with Colonel Higginson : " Put 
it down," said Colonel Lee, " that it will always remain 
an uncertainty whether it was the insane vanity of the 
elder brother, or the drunken insanity of the younger, 
which utterly ruined the finest regiment that ever left 
Massachusetts." Thus he said what others knew and 
liked to have said by some one, though themselves 
sliirking the responsibility. On the occasion of the 
choice of a new member to fill a vacancy in the Corpora- 
tion of Harvard University, much preliminary discus- 
sion occurred, and many names were suggested. Col- 
onel Lee made a hst of these names, and in a few words 
gave the measure of each man. It was considered at the 
time a remarkable piece of work, and was handed about 
with some caution. All the persons named are now 
dead save one, and that one is highly praised ; further, 
there is really little of severity in any of the remarks ; 
therefore it may be permissible to reprint the paper: 



166 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" 1827 Edmund Quincy 

Spoiled a horn, but never made a spoon. 
1829 James Freeman Clarke 

Scholarly, interested in the College, known 
through the state; but a Unitarian clergy- 
man, as is Dr. Putnam. 
1829 William Gray 

Conscientious, public-spirited, bountiful, clear- 
headed ; but works balkily in double harness, 
especially with the present Fellows. 

1835 E. Rockwood Hoar 

Hereditarily fond of the College; strong-minded; 
but too much like the present Fellows ; would 
swear that black was white, if contraried. 

1836 WilHam Minot 

An old-fashioned man of excellent judgment 
and the loftiest character. 

1837 Richard H. Dana, Jr. 

Sincerely attached to the College, and widely 
known ; not marked by common sense. One 
of my comrades adds : A happy faculty at 
making enemies. 

1839 Samuel Eliot 

A scholar, experienced educator, disinterested, 
devoted worker, known as a churchman, — 
but a cousin of the president. 

1840 J. Elliot Cabot 

The most accomplished scholar among the 
graduates not connected with the College; 
a man of very judicial mind and noble char- 
acteristics. 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 167 

William G. Russell 

* Mens Sana in corpore sano,' interested in the 
College, sagacious, judicious. 
1841 Francis E. Parker 

Scholarly, shrewd, friendly to the College ; but 
as his peculiarities are cultivated, his nature 
dies out. 

1843 John Lowell 

Very eligible — if an orphan. 
William A. Richardson 

With a reputation "strictly national;" might 
be had if wanted. 

1844 Francis Parkman 

Interested in the College, of extensive literary 
reputation, of uncertain judgment, but abun- 
dant firmness. 
1849 Martin Brimmer 

No want save that of scholarship. 
1855 Theodore Lyman 

Spirited, lively, but light-headed at times, and 
a cousin of one of the Fellows. 
Philhps Brooks 

A liberal churchman, an affectionate son of 
Harvard ; fancy that his talent lies chiefly in 
preaching. 
Alexander Agassiz 

A scholar, level-headed, disinterested, wise man. 
1859 Francis V. Balch 

Not widely known yet outside his profession ; 
but highly respected where known for his 
wisdom and perfect integrity." 



168 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Other instances of this descriptive faculty are to be 
found in his account of the Harvard Washington Corps, 
and his paper on the Ancient and Honorable Artillery, 
and indeed in many places scattered through his writings. 
There is no " f ortemque Gyan, fortemque Cloanthuin" 
in his lists of heroes; each one of them has his own 
proper distinguishment, done with a quick, clever touch, 
— half a dozen lively words often making a portrait. 
In his article on " University Hall " in the " Harvard 
Book," his somewhat more elaborate sketches of pro- 
fessors and tutors of his day are pen pictures such as 
many a famous novelist would be thankful to emulate. 

His sketch of the members of the Boston Brigade 
Band, "in the forties," even going back in his "loose 
reminiscences to the twenties," is as clever a gallery of 
lively portraiture as one can read anywhere : 

"The oldest musician I recollect, never perhaps of 
the Brigade Band, but leader at one time of a green- 
coated band, got up to accompany the Rifle Rangers in 
their new green uniforms under Sidney Bartlett, was 
Sam Wetherbee, a tall, sturdy man with very big calves 
which he sometimes dressed in leather gaiters, knee-high. 
He played the fife, and in the band the French horn, 
and he had the most wrinkled face I ever saw. 

" One of the members of the Brigade Band was Mann, 
a hooked-nose, cadaverous-faced man, who played the 
serpent, I think, and at parties the violin. Jim Kendall 
was the first leader of the band, a muscular, well-formed 
man, a famous clarinet player and very quarrelsome. I 
remember at a concert given at Masonic Temple, for 
some eminent cornet player, Kendall packed up his 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 1G9 

instrument and started to flounce away because this 
cornetist had held up his hand to enjoin more softness. 
Upon Tom Comer's remonstrance, Kendall made a jingo 
speech about his rights, etc., but was at last coaxed into 
submission. He left the band in a huff, I miderstood, 
and was succeeded by Fillebrown, a clarinet player and 
many years leader. Ned Kendall, the fifer and unri- 
valled bugler, never joined the Brigade to my knowl- 
edge, but played in the Cadet Band, formed by Jim 
when he quitted the Brigade Band. He was a tall, 
rather fine-looking man, and got haggard from late 
hours or some other cause. 

" In the Cadet Band also was Downes, a dark-haired, 
handsome Englishman, who played the octave flute or 
piccolo. He was in the Tremont Theatre orchestra, as 
was Warren, stark, straight, deacon-looking, who played 
the violin and belonged also, I think, to one of the bands. 

" Another orchestra musician who belonged to one of 
the bands was Pierce, an oldish man with rounded back 
and good face. He played the bassoon or bass horn, I 
forget which. His son was well known as a dealer in 
East India silk handkerchiefs, prominent in the old 
Mercantile Library Association. 

" In the Brigade Band was another straight, well set- 
up, soldier-like man, who played tlie trombone, also 
Niebuhr, a flat, broad-faced German ; and by the side of 
big-bellied Azel White marched Lem Clark with his 
French horn. Lem was a crusty customer, and became 
drum major, the first time in September 1830, on Cen- 
tennial Day, and afterwards with the Cadets. He wore 
a scarlet coat, flat cocked hat, and carried a red baton, 



170 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

which he never knew how to swing, saying * he was n't 
going to play any of them monkey tricks.' 

" There was a bass drummer, a very straight, showy 
man, named Stanley, who in his old age, as a fifer, lost 
all his style, and generally wore a two days' beard ; he 
was a cobbler. 

" This unkempt look characterized musicians then as 
it does now. The drummers and fifers were seldom 
dressed alike, except that the Cadets, New England 
Guards and City Guards had them uniformed, the first 
in scarlet and white, the reverse of their white and 
scarlet, the others in white with red trimmings." 

The chatty, somewhat garrulous, discursive quality of 
Mr. Lee's talk and of his newspaper writing marked 
also the speeches and addresses of which he delivered a 
great number on occasions political and social. The 
style was not quite so well fitted for formal use, but 
with his usual shrewd and just appreciation he knew 
that in a moderate quantity it would be eminently 
agreeable, and he therefore rarely spoke at great length, 
and always took pains to illumine his remarks with 
some of the apt and often humorous quotations and 
literary allusions of which, as has already been said, he 
had an endless store. Upon grave public occasions he 
scarcely endeavored to make weighty speeches, but 
he was happily able to lighten the tedium of the more 
stupendous oratory. At gatherings of a more social 
character he had no rival as a presiding officer or as a 
speaker. 

During his long life he wrote a great deal in the same 
vein in which he talked and spoke. As he talked better 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 171 

than he spoke, so he spoke better than he wrote. In 
his writing there seemed a certain fragmentary char- 
acter; his thoughts succeeded each other too rapidly; 
not infrequently a single sentence held too many sug- 
gestions and allusions, and so became complex, and had 
to be re-read. Such was his animation that he never 
had his pen long in his hand before he found an imagi- 
nary auditor before him, and he instinctively allowed 
himself those liberties which one can properly take in 
speaking, when aided by facial expression, emphasis and 
inflection, but which are apt seriously to disfigure 
writing. He was conscious of these defects and avoided 
them only by the exercise of some labor. Perhaps it 
was for this reason that he rarely made any sustained 
effort in literature. The article in the "Atlantic 
Monthly" on Mrs. Kemble, the contribution to the 
" Harvard Book," a couple of lectures on John Win- 
throp, never published, and perhaps one or two more 
papers are all which can be called elaborate. Most of 
his newspaper writing on poUtical and other contem- 
porary matters was of an excellence rare in those days, 
always with " snap " and " go " in abundance. But 
such work has to be served hot, read at the time that it 
is written; it seems but a cold dish when the event 
which it concerned is recalled with difficulty. 

The following, by " Senex," on Labor Day, is a good 
specimen of his racy style : 

" To THE Editor of the Transcript : — 

" The spirit evinced by the men on Labor Day and 
their mottoes confirmed my prejudices against this insti- 



172 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

tution. You may celebrate a Carpenter's Day, a Law- 
yer's Day, a Merchant's Day, but it is invidious to 
appoint a Good Man's Day, or a Rich Man's Day, or a 
Laborer's Day. 

"Who is a laborer? Surely you do not confine that 
universal attribute to the men who come slouching into 
your house, at say 8 A. m. and depart at 4 P. M., sent 
hither by the plumber, the mason, the carpenter. By 
such limitations you set up a distinction without a 
difference, and the so-called laborers seemed to resent 
the distinction; the mottoes on their banners evinced 
not honest pride and satisfaction, but savage discon- 
tent. Here were men, many of them translated from 
starvation to plenty, from a land of restriction to a 
land of liberty, men well paid for short hours of 
labor, dwelling in a city provided with schools, parks, 
play-grounds, churches, hospitals, societies for the dis- 
tressed in mind, body or estate, supplemented by 
individual efforts to succor the unfortunate, as the 
columns of your paper manifest every day of the year; 
here were men of various callings, showing by their 
dress and by their banners that they were not proud, 
but ashamed, of their labors, discontented with their 
lot ; that so far from recognizing the evidences of 
interest and co-operation upon the part of their em- 
ployers and fellow-citizens and of the government in 
provision for their health, comfort, advancement, re- 
creation, and responding in a friendly spirit, they 
sought to emphasize their bitterness by anarchical mot- 
toes of the French Revolution order, ending with this 
doggerel : 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 173 

The downfall of classes 
Together with gold 
Means the uprise of masses 
With blessings untold. 

" We wish that the governor or mayor addressing these 
paraders had denounced severely this baseless talk about 
masses and classes in a country of equality before the 
law, and condemned its malign spirit. How would the 
downfall of gold affect the $416,000,000 deposits in our 
Massachusetts savings banks, some of which I hope 
belong to these dissatisfied laborers? and how would 
the downfall of classes, who manage these institutions 
faithfully and judiciously, with no reward save that of 
doing good, aifect these swaggerers ? 

" Parades ! I wish we might abolish parades ; they en- 
tail unwarrantable expense, they promote vanity, poverty 
and shams. Sham soldiers (I do not include our well- 
drilled, well-disciplined militia), sham brethren, sham 
knights, sham patriarchs, sham red men, sham gentlemen, 
sham noblemen, and why not sham dollars I The shop is 
a store, the store an office, the apprentice of yesterday 
is ' connected with the firm,' the returning expressman 
is tendered a reception by his family, everybody is some- 
body else, euphony and humbug flourish. The newly 
rich son of a money-making father, honest or dishonest, 
has a butler (we used to call him, when he came from 
New Hampshire, the hired man), a valet, a tally-ho 
coach and guard who toots humble wayfarers off the 
road ; he talks of his father's old Madeira (which I 
know his father bought of the grocer round the corner), 
and speaks of his family so as to make the aged smile ; 
in short, he is a nobleman. < 



174 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

"There are more cocked hats and regalia, a greater 
profusion of titles in the state of Massachusetts than in 
all Europe; there are more medals upon the breast of 
one of our militiamen than upon that of an Austrian 
field marshal. The papers say that the laborers were 
all neatly attired, many of the organizations uniformed 
— all in keeping with their dissatisfaction with their 
actual condition, out of keeping with their resources. 
It matters not whether it is a laborer masquerading as 
a gentleman in broadcloth, or a hoodlum gotten up in 
a make-believe livery, or the son of old Gradgrind dis- 
guised as a sporting nobleman on the box of his tally-ho 
coach, — they are all equally shams, all tarred with the 
same stick; reality disappears, distinctions are con- 
founded, pretension quarrels with pretension, the com- 
mune is in the distance. 

" The men who founded and developed this country- 
were the farmers, traders and mariners of New England; 
they were, indeed, laborers, diligent in their business ; 
each and every day, from dawn to dusk, was labor 
day for them ; they were industrious, serious, frugal ; 
they indulged in no pretensions, no extravagances, no 
disguises. 

" In all our conversation let us call things by their 
lowest terms and so keep on the firm earth; in all 
public arrangements let us seek to compact, not to dis- 
rupt, society by wanton distinctions. « Senex " 

When Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Lords Chancel- 
lors " appeared, the living Lords Chancellors remarked 
that it added to the terrors of death to think that their 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 175 

biographies might be written by his Lordship. It might 
almost have been said in Boston, e converso, that it 
diminished the terrors of death to think that one's 
obituary might be written by Colonel Lee. This func- 
tion of an " Old Mortality " toiling in the newspapers 
may not seem altogether attractive, but it really became 
so when the writing was done with such a feeling and 
gracious charm as Colonel Lee was able to give to it. 
He held a picturesque memory of each old acquaint- 
ance; he had a very kindly appreciation of his quali- 
ties, and he was animated by sympathy for those who 
would wish the departed one to be pleasantly remem- 
bered. Accordingly he always succeeded in drawing a 
striking portrait, in uttering praise which seemed just 
and sincere, and in warming the whole with genuine 
sentiment. For men and women, for the lowly as well 
as for the highly placed, Colonel Lee loyally used his 
rare faculty. For example : there was " old Logan," 
as he was called, a negro who grew aged in service as a 
waiter in Boston ; he wore his woolly locks standing 
out at each side of his head in a sort of ailes-de-pigeon 
style, and as these became gray and almost white, old 
Logan grew into a striking personality ; he was a good, 
kindly, respectable man, and since not many families 
had " indoor men servants," as they were called in those 
days, Logan was an aide at nearly every dinner-party 
at all beyond the ordinary. An English gentleman, 
well introduced, passed several days in Boston, and one 
of the things which he observed as noteworthy in the 
city was that every family seemed to have a negro 
butler, and that it was surprising to see how closely aU 



176 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

these servants resembled each other in their somewhat 
odd appearance. At last Logan died, full of years and of 
humble honors, and Colonel Lee wrote a pleasant, kindly 
tribute to him which would almost have compensated the 
old man. for the pain of departing, if he had only been 
able to read such words from such a gentleman. A 
collection of these writings is gathered further on in 
this volume, and they will be invaluable in many 
Boston families. 

One of the most caustic bits of writing which came 
from Colonel Lee's pen was called forth by a matter 
already referred to, but unfortunately was not given out 
in the form in which he wrote it. When Dr. Hale's 
" Story of Massachusetts " was published, the haphazard 
work stirred Colonel Lee, who resented alike the count- 
less errors and the flagrant omissions. He sent to The 
Nation a criticism of extreme, but just, severity. It so 
happened that Dr. William Everett, led by a similar 
feeling, sent to the same newspaper an article of like 
tenor. The literary editor of The Nation, as it was 
understood, took both papers, combined them, inserted 
some remarks of his own, and published the composite 
article in the issue of March 3, 1892, under the title 
of " History Made Readable." It w^as a most damna- 
tory document, and excited much interest at the time. 
Neither Colonel Lee nor Dr. Everett, whose names were, 
by conjecture, associated with the critique, w^ere over- 
much pleased, for the interpolations of the editor were not 
considered by everybody to be altogether in good taste. 
The first half of Colonel Lee's original paper is devoted 
to exposing a long list of errors of every possible vari- 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 177 

ety, so that one hardly knows whether to be more aston- 
ished at the ignorance of the reverend author or at 
the minute knowledge of the critic. Passing over this 
portion, we find more to interest us in the latter part 
of the review, dealing with events within, the personal 
memory of both parties: 

" * General Butler called upon Governor Andrew to %ay 
to him that he was sure that it was the intention of the 
Southern leaders to bring the matter to the arbitramerit of 
war. . . . Northern states should not be unprovided for 
such an emergence/. Acting upon his advice Governor 
Andrew sent a message to the Legislature^ asking that it 
might be considered in secrecy^ etc., etc.'' It would be 
discreditable to any citizen of Massachusetts, old enough 
to see and hear what was going on in 1861, to make 
this statement ; it is positively disgraceful for one who 
pretends to write history. Early in December Mr. (not 
yet governor) Andrew visited Washington, and per- 
sonally acquainted himself with the aspect of national 
affairs and with the views of representatives, both of 
North and South, and after that the Honorable Charles 
Francis Adams kept him acquainted, from day to day, 
with the progress of events ; a confidential understand- 
ing was established with General Scott, also with Mont- 
gomery Blair and Edwin M. Stanton. There was a 
furious snow storm on January 5, 1861, the day of his 
inauguration. Without waiting for it to abate, his first 
official act, immediately after the inaugural ceremonies, 
was to despatch a confidential messenger to the gov- 
ernors of Maine and New Hampshire to acquaint them 
■with his determination to prepare the active militia of 

12 



178 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Massachusetts for instant service. The order for this 
mobilization was issued January 16th, the equipments 
ordered February 6th, — after a consultation with Gen- 
eral Thayer of the U. S. Engineers and some other 
officers ; a constant communication was kept up with 
General Scott, who informed the Governor when the 
troops would probably be sent for, by what routes they 
should come and other conditions. 

"Contemporaries attributed these preparatory move- 
ments to Governor Andrew and blamed and ridiculed 
him accordingly ; they rightly held him responsible, for 
it was he, and none but he, who took the wise initiative 
which placed Massachusetts then in the van. 

" ' On the 9th day of April 1861^ Fort Sumter was fired 
upon. Governor Andrew instantly issued his proclama- 
tion ordering into service the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh 
Regiments.^ It was not on the 9th, but on the 12th of 
April that Fort Sumter was fired upon. On the 15th 
Governor Andrew received a telegram and subsequently 
a formal requisition for troops. He immediately (on 
the 15th) ordered the commanders of the Third, Fourth, 
Sixth and Eighth Regiments to muster them forthwith, 
and the next day he sent the same order to the Fifth 
Regiment. 

" ' On the 18th of April the Sixth Regiment was mustered 
on Boston Common, twentyfour hours after the proclama- 
tion,^ which according to Mr. Hale was issued on the 9th 
or 10th, some two hundred hours before. The fact is 
that not on the 18th, but early in the morning of the 
16th, the Third, Fourth, Sixth and Eighth Regiments 
reached Boston, and because of the howling storm were 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 179 

not mustered on Boston Common but barracked at once. 
The Third, Fourth, Sixth all left in the afternoon of the 
17th; the Third and Fourth for Fortress Monroe by- 
transports selected and held in readiness from the last of 
January. The Eighth was despatched on the 18th ; the 
Fifth, together with a battalion of rifles and a battery of 
light artillery, at dawn of the 21st of April. 

" We submit these criticisms in the hope that a second 
edition may be issued free from these errors, some of 
which may be called preposterous, none of which are 
unimportant. 

" The minor mistakes of misspelling names are unfair 
to the reader, who has paid for a perfect book ; some of 
the dates might have been omitted, but if they are given 
they should be given correctly ; the historical mis-state- 
ments which only vex the reader to-day will be mislead- 
ing to another generation, who, knowing Mr. Hale to 
have been an eloquent preacher and zealous philanthro- 
pist, will presume that he must have been a well-informed 
and conscientious historian, and will adduce his ' Story 
of Massachusetts ' as chronicled by one, who from his 
acknowledged intelligence and uprightness, and because 
of his familiarity with men and events about his own 
time, can be more implicitly relied upon than less famous 
historians whose narratives conflict with his." 

Most characteristic were these closing words. Colonel 
Lee had meted out justice with rigid accuracy, and it 
had fallen with crushing effect ; but before taking leave 
of his subject he bethought him of some pleasant words, 
true enough to contain a little real balm for the victim, 
and he wrote them out before laying aside his pen. 



180 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

In the prolonged and desperate struggle waged under 
the able leadership of Miss E. P. Sohier for the salvation 
of the Old South Church, Colonel Lee naturally played 
an energetic and conspicuous part. He acted as treas- 
urer, and undoubtedly helped liberally to fill the treasury 
of which he had charge. Of course all the usual 
machinery for stimulating public interest was resorted 
to, and there was especially one meeting at which the 
distinguished attendance had evidently not been left to 
compose itself at haphazard. On tliis occasion Mr. Lee 
read the treasurer's report, and as a sort of postscript 
thereto this appeal : 

" To subscribers to the fund for the preservation of 
the ' Old South Meeting-House,' and to the public gen- 
erally, I submit the following : 

" To avert its immediate downfall, and to give the 
people, far and near, time to collect and bring in their 
contributions, a few persons have purchased the meeting- 
house and the vacant land around it, and have placed it 
in trust to await for a reasonable time the response of the 
public. I am able to state that $150,000 have been 
promised for the preservation of the building, provided 
that the further sum of $100,000 is contributed before 
the first day of April next. 

" It is hardly necessary to remind the inhabitants of 
the ' old town of Boston,' or those who look back upon it 
with affection as their birthplace or the home of their 
ancestors, of the associations which attach to the building 
and to the ground upon which it stands. To recount 
them is to recount the history of the settlement from its 
beginning. It is the last of the Puritan meeting-houses 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 181 

upon this peninsula ; and here, over two centuries ago, 
in Madam Norton's pasture, Captain Thomas Savage 
and his associates built the meeting-house of ' the Third 
Church.' It was in this building that Chief Justice 
Sewall, with great Christian magnanimity, supplicated 
for mercy, on the Lord's day, in open congregation, for 
having under the popular delusion condemned to death 
the innocent Salem witches ; it was here that Franklin 
was baptized on the day of his birth, and it was here 
he worshipped with his parents. 

" The present meeting-house is associated with stormy 
town-meetings of patriots, wrought to indignation by 
the massacre of their townsmen, or driven by the ex- 
acting tyranny of their blind rulers to revolutionary 
deeds. At its door the band of Mohawks sounded the 
war-whoop as they rushed to the wharf where lay the tea- 
ships. Here Hancock and Warren, undaunted, rehearsed 
' the horrors of that dreadful night ' of the 7th of March, 
1770, and here for a hundred years eloquent orators and 
reverend divines have addressed the dignitaries of town 
and state, moving hither in stately procession upon the 
day of the annual election and the day of our national 
independence. The very ground is historical, the oldest 
historical spot upon our peninsula, for it formed a part 
of the homestead of our patriarch, our first governor, 
the wise and patient and disinterested Winthrop. If, as 
John Adams has said, the Old State House is the birth- 
place of American independence, surely this is the birth- 
place of the Puritan Commonwealth. And in its tower, 
which we gaze at as we pass to mark the passage of 
time, were collected the annals of those early days, until 



182 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Burgoyne turned the meeting-house into a riding-school 
for his dragoons, and these precious records were stolen 
or wantonly destroyed by the ignorant soldiers. It is an 
ancient landmark, one of our last and most historic. 
Remove it not ; its presence dignifies our city and lends 
to it a touch of that old-world charm which we New 
Englanders so admire elsewhere. Its absence would 
reproach us, and disgust the stranger who comes within 
our gates. There are sermons in stones ; heed them." 

Later on, the same evening, he made the following 
speech : 

" In the report just read I have merely glanced at the 
chief events which have lent historic interest to the Old 
South Meeting-House, and I think they are as many as 
are associated with any building. In parting with many 
of our historic buildings we have met with not only a 
sentimental, but an historical, loss. The Province House, 
at the time the state parted with it, was worth, with its 
half acre of land, about $20,000 ; and we can easily see 
that it would have been a mse economy on the part of 
the state or citj^ to have secured and retained it for their 
own purpose rather than to have built the expensive 
building since erected. The Hancock House, which 
was offered a few years ago to the public, was sold 
for $125,000, with the large tract of land which still 
remained around it. Within a year of that time the 
state expended between $200,000 and $300,000 in tor- 
turing the State House, — a most respectable, stately 
building, — into one of the most intricate nests of ugly 
confectioners' cells that I have ever seen. The Han- 
cock House, and buildings which could have been 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 183 

cheaply put up on vacant land around it, would have 
afforded more room, and at the same time its vener- 
able associations would have been preserved. And so 
it has been with the other buildings which have passed 
away. There still remain to us two of the most ancient 
of our historic buildings, — the Old State House and 
the Old South, both memorable as buildings can be, 
marking events all along our brief history. If the 
Old State House may be fairly called * the place where 
our national independence was born,' where James Otis 
pleaded against the writs of assistance, we can certainly 
say, without exaggeration, that the homestead of John 
Winthrop, who was the Alfred of our colony, was the 
home where the Puritan Commonwealth was born. 
There is a curious inconsistency in our people. They 
are very liberal in building new monuments, and do 
not object to using the state's money or the town's 
money for that purpose. But they have the idea that 
the old monument, which has got shabby, is no longer 
to be preserved. I don't see that trait in our people 
when they travel abroad. They do not stop in Liver- 
pool to see the new docks or the new buildings. They 
go up to Chester to see the old buildings. They don't 
go to look at the recently erected palaces of Belgravia in 
London ; they go to the Tower, which I think is equally 
shabby with the Old South. Even in Edinburgh, hand- 
some as modern Edinburgh is with its classic architec- 
ture, they do not spend time there ; they go over to the 
historical localities of the place to pass their time, — the 
old wynds and closes, with all their attendant repulsive- 
ness and dangers. It is a curious thing that they don't 



184 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

find shabbiness there, and do not confound homeliness 
with ugliness. Here they seem to have a different stand- 
ard. But they say : ' This is a very different thing. The 
Old South has no such history as those localities have.' 
I don't know when we shall have history if we keep pull- 
ing down our historical buildings as we go along. It 
will be rather difficult to establish any history without 
any reminder. It seems to me we should hardly like 
to resolve ourselves into Communists and destroy our 
Hotel de Ville or Sainte Chapelle. (Perhaps the lat- 
ter name would not be appropriate to the buildings we 
are now speaking of, as no religious services can now be 
held there.) We don't want to destroy any of our his- 
toric buildings ; and if we do, we in reality incur the 
reproach of communism. I, for one, believe it would be 
an economic matter to-morrow for Boston to tax every 
citizen for the sake of preserving these two old buildings. 
I think the interest which they lend to the city, and the 
value which they possess in various aesthetic and other 
ways, would quite compensate for any tax which should 
be imposed for their preservation. 

"I cannot, ladies and gentlemen, expatiate on these 
matters as some others might do. Fortunately, we have 
upon our committee both poets and historians. It has 
been said that Robert Burns and Walter Scott built the 
roads through Scotland, and it is not too much to expect 
of our poets and our historians to save the Old South. 
We have here to-day a gentleman who is identified with 
the earliest generation of Puritans. I read in Governor 
Winthrop's narrative of ' John Eliot, member of the 
Boston congregation, and one whom the congregation 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 185 

intended to call to the office of teacher, but who was 
called to be a teacher to the church at Roxbury; and 
though Boston labored all they could, both with the 
congregation at Roxbury, and with Eliot himself, alleg- 
ing their want of him, and the covenant between them, 
yet he could not be diverted from accepting the call of 
Roxbury; so he was dismissed.' Now we have a de- 
scendant of the Eliot family here, and I should like 
to inquire whether there is an aristocracy of teachers in 
this country, — whether all the Eliots are called upon 
to be ' teachers.' If so, I wish he would teach us how 
to save the Old South. I don't know of any man more 
able to do it." 

Upon occasions of this sort many persons allow them- 
selves to be urged into uttering " a few appropriate 
words," without much caring about the matter in hand ; 
but this was far from being the case with Colonel Lee ; 
his whole heart was enlisted in every cause of this kind ; 
he would have held every monument of old Boston as 
sacred as an altar. The genuineness of his feeling gave 
to his speeches an unwonted charm and influence, though 
it may sometimes have lent to his arguments a quality 
more specious than practical. But the ardor which led 
a sound-headed man of affairs to speak thus supplied 
the force which the arguments lacked. His impromptu 
speech on behalf of the State House, as Mr. Bulfinch 
designed it, was one of those rare addresses which have 
exerted practical influence on the preconceived opinions 
of men. Though uttered without premeditation, it was 
more often referred to and with more praise than any 
other thing of the like kind which he did. Apart from 



186 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

the preservation of the Old South, so far as this was pro- 
moted by him, it is true that we see no definite results 
of his conservative efforts. Monument after monument 
has gone to destruction, in spite of him. Yet no one 
knows how much worse the havoc might have been had 
he held his peace ; for such interest as he felt is conta- 
gious, and his talk down town and witli his friends 
unquestionably stimulated a reverence for the ancient 
things of the city. When he wrote or spoke of 
them, he was listened to with interest, for all knew 
that his words were poured forth not only from ful- 
ness of knowledge, but from fulness of the heart 
also. 

A letter to Miss Jewett, written not many years before 
his death, is tinged a little with the not altogether reason- 
able regrets of old age over vanishing days, but it ex- 
presses well his pleasing sentiment, his gracious reverence 
for the past times : 

" My dear Miss Jewett : — 

" Moving and a slight illness have delayed my ac- 
knowledging the receipt of the New England Magazine 
for July, 1894, containing your pretty history of Berwick, 
which came back to me as I re-read it. 

" When locomotion was limited to the possibilities of 
the stagecoach or the one-horse chaise, and society radi- 
ated no farther, people made themselves busy and happy 
within this circle ; and nothing now corresponds to it 
in cosiness or heartiness, when the alternative is to go 
to a concert in Boston or Denver. In Boston in my 
boyhood the houses were for the most part detached 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 187 

garden houses ; there was no quarter for the rich, they 
and the poor, successful and unsuccessful members of 
the same family, perhaps, — at least of the same stock, 
— dwelt in the same quarter ; there were only enough 
foreigners to exercise benevolence on, not to intrude ; 
families and friends built courts (no thoroughfares) to 
dwell in together, and there was a personal recognition 
and co-operation in all affairs, — social, municipal, eccle- 
siastical, educational, — which was wholesome. We all 
lived in this little world ; all our work and all our play 
were there. 

"We have lost two classes which gave flavor to our 
society then, which built up this country, — farmers 
and sailors, — by our stupid Chinese tariff, the men 
who had seen the wonders of the deep and those 
who had subdued the forests ; and both had seen God. 
They were the backbone of our society and we have 
lost them wantonly. It makes me cynical to hear what 
a beautiful city we have made Boston, what beautiful 
parks, what a handsome quarter is Back Bay. I shut 
my eyes and see the lovely old Boston Emerson 
pictures, — 

The rocky nook -with hill-tops three 
Looked eastward from the farms, 
And twice each day the flowing sea 
Took Boston in its arms, 

a proud little historic town, peopled by homogeneous 
folks of a marine or rustic flavor, when the town melted 
into the country insensibly, the old natural country, 
not the chromo-boulevard-parklike country, which is 
better than nothing, but which is as like the old as 



188 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

the wig is to the natural hair. (I have been a Park 
Commissioner myself.) 

" I wanted to say to you how Mrs. Lee and I have 
enjoyed your stories as they have come out, — none 
more than the ' Country of the Pointed Firs,' the 
buxom, hearty, hospitable herb-collector, her relations 
with her mother and shy, sensitive brother over at the 
island, a gentlemanly, shy old man who has been a 
traveler, alas 1 

" When you are eighty years, my dear Miss Jewett, 
you will fail to remember what you read only some 
months since and felt sure of recollecting. I only know 
that I was so delighted with your story that I was 
tempted to break through privacy and dwell upon its 
subtle charms ; it seemed as if you must have been the 
boarder and brought away photographs of some of the 
scenes so graphically drawn." 

When the West End Street Railway Company made 
its villainous raid to capture Boston Common, Colonel 
Lee uttered his angry denunciation against a "greedy 
corporation which, backed by clamorous, unscrupulous 
suburbans, who desire to combine the advantage of 
cheap land in the country with cheap conveyance 
through the city at the expense of those who pay the 
city taxes, proposes to invade the Common. 

"One suburban proprietor states that immediate 
relief is imperative^ and that a line of electric cars miist 
he run across the Common for their accommodation; 
and Mr. Hyde, counsel for the West End Railway, sees 
no objection, meaning, we suppose, that the railway sees 
no objection. 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 189 

"One legal gentlemen, paid or unpaid, elicited great 
applause by stating the question to be : ' Is the Common 
made for Boston, or is Boston made for the Common ? ' 
This was very smart, and calculated to make the un- 
skilful laugh and the judicious grieve. This astute 
lawyer and his brother Hyde seek to obscure the real 
question : Is the Common made for untaxed suburbans 
and a brazen-faced railroad company, or is it intended 
for the breathing space, the resting-place of tired 
mothers, pent up children, weary workmen, who have 
neither time nor strength nor money to travel to Frank- 
lin Park or any of the distant pleasure-grounds availed 
of by the wealthy citizens ? 

" Is the city government at liberty to alienate this old 
historic Common field, or does the city charter still 
except this and Faneuil Hall from the property of the 
city which they are allowed to lease or sell ? 

" Mr. Matthews states that while 3,000 antiquarians 
in Boston would object to using the Common for rapid 
transit, 500,000 people would vote for it. It seems as if 
there must be more than 3,000 descendants of the brave 
founders of Boston and of the patriotic generations who 
have made its proud history, who would resist the 
tearing down of the ' Old State House,' or the ' Old 
South,' or who would forbid the City Council to violate 
the charter by selhng Faneuil Hall, or encroaching upon 
the Common, or cutting down Bunker Hill, in order to 
convey some impatient suburbans gratuitously through 
the breadth and length of the ' Old Town of Boston.' " 

Colonel Lee had much liking for the country, but was 
of course too much concerned in active and social life to 



190 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

bury himself in remote rural regions ; nor was his taste 
so much for wild and untamed nature as it was for estates 
which had felt the civilizing hand of man, such as in his 
day lay within a dozen miles of Boston. He had an 
extensive knowledge concerning them, especially con- 
cerning all which had any claim to what passes for 
antiquity with us. For a few years, from 1873 to 1885, 
he occupied a house in Boston during the winter ; but 
most of his life was passed in Brookhne, where he first 
built and occupied a brick house on an estate which had 
been bought by himself and his father. These grounds 
lay beautifully on the southerly slope of a hill, with 
abundance of fine trees and an antique garden. The 
first reservoir, which was built when Cochituate water 
was introduced into Boston, lay directly in front of them, 
at the foot of the hill. The history of the place, in addi- 
tion to its own charm, was a source of pleasure to Colonel 
Lee, for it had belonged to one of the old and well-known 
families. He wrote concerning it to Colonel Marshal P. 
Wilder, when that gentleman was compiling his book : 

" My dear. Colonel Wilder : — 

" In the year 1850 my father and I purchased a portion 
of the old Boylston place opposite the Brookline Reser- 
voir. The old mansion house in which was born Susan- 
nah Boylston, the mother of President Adams, was taken 
down and the present house built in 1738, and is a fine 
specimen of the country houses of the provincial era, 
with its ample fire-places, well-wrought panelling, arched 
and pilastered alcoves, wide and easy staircase, carved 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 191 

balustrades, etc. The present house was the house of 
the famous Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, who was first mobbed 
and nearly killed, and afterwards honored in this country 
and England, for introducing inoculation for small pox ; 
he was tlie uncle of old John Adams. Some of the great 
elms under which John Adams played as a boy still 
cluster about the old house, and I have a letter from him 
to his ' Cousin Boylston,' written when he was about 
ninety yeara old, expatiating upon the beauty of the old 
place, its extended views, etc., and begging Boylston to 
buy it bacJi from Mr. Hyslop, who then owned it. 

" My father lived here half the year from 1850 till his 
death in 1867, gathering and distributing his crops of 
cherries, pears and apples, keeping off the canker worms, 
nursing his plantations of deciduous and evergreen trees 
with as much interest as if his livelihood depended on 
bis success. It is a most attractive old country seat 
sloping to the south; the trees were always in blossom a 
week earlier than elsewhere ; a large old-fashioned gar- 
den with fruit and flowers lay east of the house, the lawn 
sloped gently down to the road. The rest of the grounds 
were covered with apple trees, some of which were 
gradually cleared away to make room for ornamental 
planting. My brick house stands upon the site of the 
old barnyard, with two broad terraces connectmg it with 
the rapidly sloping ground in front. 

" Tlie hill-side above and below my house is quite 
densely planted with evergreens intermingled with 
shrubberies, as I lived here only during the winter 
months, spending my summer at my sea-side house at 
Beverly Farms. My trees grew so rapidly that I have 



192 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

been obliged to thin out constantly, and to shear my 
evergreens into masses, as I do my evergreen hedges. 

" ' Old Thomas Lee,' to whom you refer, was my 
father's brother, who for forty or fifty years spent his 
summers at his place near Jamaica Pond, which, in my 
opinion, was the best piece of landscape gardening near 
Boston. The park-hke wood, the well grouped planta- 
tions of shrubs of every variety with their constant suc- 
cession of flowers, the vistas, the lawn for many long 
years unrivalled, the footpaths winding about natur- 
ally, as dictated by obstacles or the undulations of the 
ground, the insertion of native or foreign shrubs and 
plants in their appropriate places, as if springing up 
spontaneously, — in short, the art of concealing art has 
never been carried so far by any of his contemporaries. 

"It seemed an act of ingratitude to allow this place, 
upon which he had bestowed so much thought and love, 
to be sold, — but every one of my uncle's six nephews 
and nieces had country seats of their own to which they 
were attached ; so this rare bit of landscape was sold to 
Mr. Dwight, and by him to Mr. Sargent, who has united 
it with his grounds and changed it altogether." 

After the death of his wife's mother Colonel Lee occu- 
pied her house, about half a mile from his former place. 
This property was already well cared for ; but he so 
improved it that it became one of the most attractive 
suburban estates in the neighborhood. At Beverly 
Farms, also, on the North Shore of Massachusetts Bay, 
he had a fine headland which he bought in 1845. Colo- 
nel Lee used to tell, with his amused smile, how the 
native owner thought that the city greenhorn who came 



Colonel Lee's headland at Beverly Farms 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 193 

to him to buy that gravel bank and parcel of rocks had 
been sent, as it were, by the thoughtfulness of a good 
God, and how he joyously delivered the deeds in exchange 
for a small sum of the colonel's money. The fisherman- 
farmer lived to change his mind when INIr. Lee, by his 
skill and patience, by his loaming and planting, in the 
lapse of time made these barren acres one of the most 
beautiful points in the whole length of that famous 
coast. 

He had a natural aptitude for landscape gardening, 
with a good knowledge of trees and of horticulture. He 
knew and loved the native wild flowers, and alwaj's 
noted them in his wanderings. When he travelled 
abroad his diaries indicate that proper interest in the 
pictures and the churches, which, of course, always in- 
spires a cultivated gentleman making the " grand tour,"' 
but in every trip from one town to another he notes, 
unprompted by the guide book of Mr. Baedeker, every 
variety of flower blooming by the wayside. So when he 
went to New Berne during the Civil War, amid all the 
excitement and novelty of the panorama of a real cam- 
paign, having his brother, his relatives and his friends as 
active dramatis personse, he yet mentions in nearly every 
letter to his wife the flowers and shrubs and trees which 
he finds there. Only once, and not for a very long time, 
his taste and knowledge were utilized for the public 
service. He was one of the three or four fit men who 
have ever been appointed upon our various Park Com- 
missions. It was quite a matter of couree that a new 
Mayor, " fulfilling the purpose for which the ring nomi- 
nated and elected him," set aside Colonel Lee and Mr. 

13 



194 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Gray, and in their places appointed "two Democratic 
politicians, whose knowledge of parks was not of the 
greatest." 

In 1893 Colonel Lee thought that the enthusiasm for 
parks had been somewhat overdone. In the course of 
an article in which he strenuously opposed the scheme 
for the Charles River Embankment, he said : 

" The benefit of parks has been demonstrated, and a 
certain acreage, well selected and distributed and suffi- 
ciently opened up with walks and frugally embellished 
with trees, shrubs and vines, should be provided. 

" But we have gone mad upon the subject. We have 
laid out too many parks, and have tormented the grounds 
out of their pristine beauty, and on these superfluous 
earthworks and on imported and rare plants have lav- 
ished money until the maintenance of these parks and 
parkways will impose an annual tax of millions. 

" Setting aside the problem of expense, these parks 
are all beautiful, beneficial; but this new project of a 
prolonged Cliarles River Embankment is the maddest 
of all ; it would not only not be beneficial, but destruc- 
tive of one of the most precious relics of the old town 
of Boston." 

The disastrous advent of Mr. Doogue into the Public 
Garden aroused Colonel Lee's ire. He hastened into 
print, as usual : 

" I am glad to see a sensible protest against the vul- 
gar bedizening of the Public Garden, many thousands of 
dollars spent every year to lessen instead of to increase 
its charm. The French have an expressive phrase for 
overdoing in architecture, which applies to Mr. Doogue 's 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 195 

injudicious elaborations, trop tourmenU, and while the 
public purse would be repleted, the public eye would be 
rested by the substitution of well-shorn, well-wet, well- 
fed sod for ribbon gardening, or misplaced, profuse beds 
of brilliant flowers. Grass, trees, flowering shrubs and 
sparse perennials are the proper ornaments of a public 
garden; these, arranged with reference to habits of 
growth, time of flowering, harmony of color, would 
gratify the eye more than this crude gorgeousness. 

" We regret to say that Mr. Olmsted sins as well as 
Mr. Doogue ; he spends vast sums in too much interven- 
tion, too much fussing, too extravagant planting." 

The next day he condemned " the crowded, bedizened 
beds of discordant-colored tulips," complaining that 
"such an excess of gorgeousness begets satiety." 

These protests, however, seemed to act, as such pro- 
tests so often do, rather as stimulants than as deterrents 
in respect of the evil complained of. 

In Brookline he conducted a desperate and prolonged 
defence against the widening of Boylston Street for the 
accommodation of the electric cars. The counsel for the 
destroyers said with beautiful eloquence that " the tide 
of humanity which is advancing over Brookline " re- 
quired the widening, but Colonel Lee was successful in 
staying the project for a time. It is only since his death 
that modern civihzation has won its usual fatal success, 
and that the once beautiful road has become a hideous 
" boulevard." "The word boulevard," said Colonel Lee, 
"Uke all unintelligible words, supposed to stand for some- 
thing magnificent, has misled our people into building 
most unreasonably wide roads with expanses of gravel 



196 MEMOIR OF C0L02s^EL HENRY LEE 

never driven over ; costly to make, more costly to keep, 
and an eyesore to the lover of landscape." Apart from 
the special mischief plotted against Boylston Street, and 
incidentally against his beautiful jDlace tliereon, he always 
held electric cars in especial odium, as many another 
worthy citizen has done and still does ; and frequent 
were the hostile screeds which the detestable machines 
called forth from him. In the course of this struggle 
in Brookline Colonel Lee made an appeal to sentiment 
which, though it seemed a feeble pellet with wdiich to 
bombard an electric railway corporation, yet had an 
effect which quite astonished the opposing counsel : 

" Mr. Chandler saj's that my opposition is sentimental. 
It is partly so. My affection for my place and its value 
to the town are enhanced by the antiquity and history of 
the old Boylston House, as I have endeavored to show. 
It is sentiment that has moved me to plead for the 
preservation of the Old State House, though its removal 
would replenish my purse. It is sentiment which has 
kept me for sixteen years treasurer of the fund for the 
preservation of the Old South, which induced me to work 
hard eleven years as treasurer of the Harvard IMemorial 
Fund, and it is sentiment which makes me cherish the 
old trees and historic house which has passed into my 
possession." 

An amusing story is told of him in connection with 
the extension of Commonwealth Avenue beyond Massa- 
chusetts Avenue. When that highway was still a 
mere expanse of freshly dumped gravel, jNIr. Olmsted 
was engaged to furnish a scheme for rendering it beau- 
tiful. After duly pondering the problem he produced a 



Colonel Lee'.s house at Beverlif Farms 



J 



PERSONAL TRAITS; LITERARY LABORS 197 

plan in the usual style of landscape garden work, 
streaked with meandering dabs of green paint indicative 
of anticipated foliage. Colonel Lee, who had his rea- 
sons for being interested in the matter, possessed him- 
self of one of these expansive documents with its dreams 
of umbrageous forest trees, glades and dells and general 
boskiness. It was impressive, yet it failed to commend 
itself to his skilled eye. Thereupon he had recourse to 
his favorite game, played with bits of pasteboard cut 
upon a scale and representing trees, groves and shrubs 
of the average size ; these he laid upon Mr. Olmsted's 
plan, with the result that they so overlapped each other, 
and so encroached upon walks and roadway, that it was 
obvious that the park must be at least two stories high 
to accommodate such a sylvan display. The conse- 
quence of this demonstration was the abandonment of 
the romantic scheme and the adoption of the present 
system. 



CHAPTER VII 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS RELIGION — SUNDAY OCCUPA- 
TIONS—DEATH 

In his amusing and extravagant way Colonel Lee used 
occasionally to allege that any New Englander who 
was not a Unitarian must have some defect in his intel- 
lectual make-up. Of course he himself was of that 
creed ; indeed, how could he have been otherwise amid 
the entourage of all those Lees, Jacksons, Cabots and 
Higginsons, pillars of that faith, absorbing with rever- 
ence every word spoken by the apostolic William Ellery 
Channing, and most ingenuously bigoted in their revolt 
against bigotry. He was puzzled and indignant that 
anyone should still accept the stern and hateful doc- 
trines which the old-time divines had bequeathed to 
New England. On the other hand he was not at all 
disturbed that one should cast aside all creeds and 
almost all beliefs. It was the only instance in his life 
when he seemed careless of dramatic proprieties, for 
a man of his personal appearance ought to have been 
seen regularly every Sunday performing all the obei- 
sances and genuflections demanded by the Anglican 
ritual; he would have been a fine and striking figure 
in a congregation of High Church Episcopalians; the 
only excuse for him is that in his early days the churches 
of this creed were in a very embryonic stage in Boston, 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS RELIGION 199 

having not yet been taken up by the fashionable set. In 
his way, however, he was really devout, at least as de- 
votion goes among Unitarians; he was a church-goer, 
and often of a Sunday, when kept at home by some 
cause, he would read a sermon to the family circle, and 
read it so well, too, that they listened with some pleas- 
ure. Obviously he Avould have emphatically denied 
any assertion that he was not as believing a Christian 
as the most strict of his orthodox neighbors. At a 
dinner given to his friend, Frederick H. Hedge, D.D., 
December 12, 1885, he said: 

" Timidity and disingenuousness are not the charac- 
teristics of Unitarian divines, rather of those who are 
unfortunately hampered by a creed. But something 
more than freedom from disingenuousness ; a bluff, 
downright utterance of the truth, the whole truth, 
and nothing but the truth, characterized Dr. Hedge's 
preaching. 

"The sight of a huge, soft- wooded, open -grained, 
rapid-growthed silver poplar with its pale bark, its 
sprawling grandeur, asserting its place among the slow- 
growthed, close-grained, hard-wooded hickories and 
beeches and oaks, — irritates me and I long to have it 
felled. So, when I am constrained to listen to the well- 
turned sentences of a comely, flabby, sonorous utterer of 
commonplaces or of borrowed thoughts, I am tempted, 
as was a humorous friend of mine, impatient of the pre- 
ternaturally soft and solemn talk of her minister, to say 
'devil! devil I devil!' But when a man who has read 
and thought and felt much pours out for me the lesson 
of his sweet and bitter experience, in words which burn 



200 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

that lesson into my mind and heart, then I am instructed 
and refreshed." 

It was largely through the efforts of Mr. Lee that 
the use of the Music Hall was secured for Theodore 
Parker, when that quasi-divine was preaching on Sun- 
days a sort of secular sermon which shocked the good 
Unitarians about as much as they themselves shocked 
the good orthodox. The story cannot now be recov- 
ered in exact form, but the purport was that a majority 
of the proprietors of the hall, then newly constructed, 
were strongly opposed to permitting it to be used in 
this manner. Prominent in this majority was Mr. 
Lee's own caustic and formidable uncle, Mr. Thomas 
Lee. But Mr. Lee, who owned only one share, by a 
speech in which he ridiculed the idea of managing a hall 
on sentimental grounds, routed the majority, and there- 
after the people of the " new light," the " come outers," 
gathered regularly on the sacred day to listen to the 
profane addresses of a very good and a very eloquent 
man. 

So also in the early days, when Ralph Waldo Emer- 
son was still anathema for all Christians save the most 
advanced Unitarians, Mr. Lee had anticipated the feel- 
ing of later years towards him. He once delivered at 
Divinity Hall an address on " The Ministry as Viewed 
by a Layman," in which he said: 

" The gradual transition from liberalism to conserva- 
tism is as natural, as inevitable, as the gradual transi- 
tion from spring to fall, from the strength and freshness 
of 3'outh to the feebleness and dryness of age. The 
Unitarian clergymen, who a few years before had been 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS RELIGION 201 

denounced by their Calvinistic brethren as radicals and 
skeptics, were now presiding over parishes filled with 
the wealthiest and most eminent citizens. 

" The attitude of the church on slavery, temperance 
and other social and political questions, was more cal- 
culated to win the approval of their prosperous and 
prudent parishioners than to raise it in the esteem of 
sincere and enlightened Christians. They had moved 
the old fences further along, so as to include their own 
followers among accepted Christians, and were now, as 
boundary commissioners, resting from their labors and 
contemplating with serene self-satisfaction the excellent 
worldly and spiritual condition of the community en- 
folded within their liberal domain. 

"Suddenly roused from their placid, not to say 
drowsy, condition by the attempts of some young pre- 
sumptuous persons to move or climb the fences so care- 
fully fixed by themselves, they assumed the old position 
of their Calvinistic brethren, and became rebukers in- 
stead of defenders of freedom of thought, confident that 
they had established the scientific boundary between 
liberty and license, between well-considered and ill- 
considered reform. This movement forward would have 
taken place had Emerson never lived. It was as irre- 
sistible as the movement of the glacier. But Emer- 
son's influence in promoting and regulating it was very 
great. 

" Combining hereditar}' piety with openness of mind 
and rare common sense, his outlook was that of a poet, 
and at the same time of an acute, practical New Eng- 
lander, steering with unerring instinct between stupid 



202 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

conservatism and impracticable reform. And his brief, 
pregnant sentences, his modest serenity amid ridicule 
and adulation, his sweet charity to those who followed 
and those who turned away from him, gave him an as- 
cendency over his fellow-men. 

"He was our Moses. Early had he heard and an- 
swered the voice of the Lord from out the burning 
bush. It was he who, guided by the pillar of cloud by 
day and fire by night, for forty years led the people 
through the wilderness. It was he who, when they 
were famishing, fed them with manna from heaven; 
who, when they were dying of thirst, ' smote the rock 
twice, and the water came out abundantly, and the con- 
gregation drank.' Stigmatized as a skeptic, he rallied 
the fugitives from pew and pulpit, driven off by that 
worst form of materialism, that unpardonable sin against 
the Holy Ghost, — the worship of forms and dogmas, — 
and brought them to see God face to face. 

"'And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he 
did to the poeple, he said, "What is this thing that 
thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself 
alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning 
until even?" And Moses said unto his father-in-law, 
"Because the people come unto me to inquire of God." ' 

" Which of the Beatitudes did he not exemplify ? 
Poor in spirit, meek, merciful, pure in heart, a peace- 
maker, reviled and persecuted and falsely accused, this 
child of God, the heir of earth and heaven, the light of 
the world, passed to his great reward. 'And Enoch 
walked with God, and he was not; for God took 
him.'" 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS RELIGION 203 

There is also another paper of his which, on March 15, 
1886, was "Spoken at a Social Meeting of our Brook- 
line Church," and which in his copy is entitled: "Why 
we go to Church." The introductory paragraphs con- 
tain not unfamiliar history; after these, he continues: 

"John Adams, in a letter to a French abbd, who 
desired material for a history of the American Revolu- 
tion, writes that there are four institutions which he 
hopes will be preserved as the foundation of the liberty, 
happiness and prosperity of the people. These four in- 
stitutions are, — first, the towns ; second, the churches ; 
third, the schools; fourth, the militia. He might have 
added that in the beginning there was but one institu- 
tion, for our government was at first a theocracy, — the 
church dominated the town, the school and the militia. 
No man who was not a member of the church could 
hold ofiice or even vote; none save members of the 
church could be freemen; the schools and colleges 
were founded and directed chiefly by the clergy ; and 
as to the militia, the heretical followers of Mrs. Anne 
Hutchinson and the Reverend Mr. Wheelwright were 
disarmed because of their heresies. The laws, and the 
penalties for their violation, were drawn up by the 
clergy from the cruel code of the Old Testament. How 
little they were imbued with the spirit of the New 
Testament, — these autocratic clergymen, — may be 
judged by their treatment of Roger Williams, Mrs. 
Anne Hutchinson and others, and their scourging and 
hanging of the Quakers. Think of a married woman 
of excellent repute compelled to stand on her feet for 
two whole days, and this, too, when in a condition to 



204 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

be harmed by fatigue or excitement, to be badgered 
and cross-examined and insulted by a dozen or more 
magistrates and clergymen because, forsooth, she had 
dared to differ from said worthies on points of theolog}^, 
and to hold meetings of women at her house to discuss 
these points and to criticise some of the clergy. And 
this ordeal was followed by a prolonged inquisition and 
then by banishment to the wilds where the pagan In- 
dians, no more cruel than the Christian clergy, massa- 
cred her and her children. Yet these men had the 
heroism of the early martyrs, — tearing themselves away 
from pleasant homes, they had endured the pang of 
parting, the homesickness of exile, and ventured across 
the seas to settle in a cold and barren wilderness full 
of savage beasts and still more savage men, that they 
might worship God in spirit and in truth; — ' thus saith 
the Lord ' was their watchword, but they were more 
saturated with theology than with charity; and fear 
of schism, together with spiritual pride and the re- 
membrance of their past sacrifices, had hardened their 
hearts against dissenters. They magnified their office, 
they confounded the things which be Caesar's and the 
things which be God's. They were, little by little, 
stripped of their temporal power, as lias been the Pope 
of Rome in our day, and the schools emerged from 
their thraldom. 

"If, in the early j^ears of this century, the temporal 
power of the clergy was well nigh gone, the cruel 
creed of Calvin still prevailed. Dr. Channing relates 
the awful impression made upon him when a boy by 
one of these gloomy discourses, so that he sat anxiously 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS RELIGIOX 205 

watching his father on their drive home, unable to utter 
a syllable, until at last his father's whistling and his 
subsequent serenity convinced the poor, terrified boy 
that he did not believe tlie preacher. But while a 
sturdy, clear-headed lawyer might reason himself free 
from this hideous creed of man's devising, many sensi- 
tive, devout women were crushed by morbid anxieties. 

"I am asked why I go to church. I cannot conceive 
what pleasure or profit could have been derived from 
attending church up to this period in our history. At 
the best it was unprofitable, at the worst it was mad- 
dening. Fortunately for me I was born after the Uni- 
tarian movement had taken place, when the men most 
capable of reasoning and of enduring the disapproba- 

^ of their brethren filled the pulpits of the new sect. 
Thacher and Buckminster were dead. They and Chan- 
ning had, according to Dr. Kirkland, ' introduced a 
new era in preaching.' It was a new era, a return to 
the preaching of our Saviour, subordinating or reject- 
ing theological dogma as a superstructure of ques- 
tionable truth or unquestionable untruth ; substituting a 
conviction of man's possible elevation for a belief in 
his total depravity, representing God as a just and 
merciful and ever-present Father instead of a distant 
and offended Deity only to be reconciled by the blood 
of the Lamb; rejoicing in the beauty and goodness of 
this world pervaded by sweetness and light, instead of 
moaning over it as a vale of tears shrouded by gloom ; 
picturing the world to come as the sequence of this 
with its record of good and evil, and not as the heaven 
and hell to which erring mortals were capriciously con- 



206 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

signed to endure everlasting torment or to enjoy never- 
ending felicity. Whoever reads the biographies of the 
founders of Unitarianism will think better of the human 
race, — so brave, so patient, so strong-minded, so disin- 
terested, so true to their convictions were these men. 
The correspondence of the Buckminsters, — father and 
son, — reveals the distress caused by these divergences 
of belief between persons closely bound together by love 
and kinship. Born into a family on friendly relations 
with most of these clergymen, I naturally regarded them 
with respect and interest, within and without the pulpit. 
President Kirkland's sententious sagacity and benignity, 
Dr. Lowell's fervor and brevity. Dr. Walker's logic 
and weighty matter, Mr. Greenwood's poetical strain, 
his look like John the Evangelist, his solemn musical 
reading of the liturgy, and last and greatest of all, the 
eye and voice of Dr. Channing, his atmosphere of holi- 
ness as, burdened with the gravity of his mission, he 
struck awe into the hearts of his hearers ; — all these 
and many more among the younger clergy, each with 
his own peculiar angle of incidence, impressed and in- 
terested me. Then the music, the hymns, had great 
power over me. There were some that I could hardly 
bear to hear sung, so affecting were they to a boy de- 
pendent for his happiness on his parents and near rela- 
tives, and inconsolable at the thought of their possible 
loss. One great delight to me was, and always has 
been, the ritual of the church, with its prayers for all 
conditions of men, its chants, and above all, its re- 
sponses, — all beautiful and hallowed by the use of 
generations; and much as I have enjoyed the services 



\ 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS RELIGION 207 

in our Brookline church for thirty-four years, I still 
long for the Chapel liturgy. 

" It seems to me that when we assemble together to 
worship God in the bond of love and in unity of spirit, 
we should all take part in the hymns and in the read- 
ing of the Psalms and in the prayers, and not devolve 
the duty upon the minister alone. Lastly, the church, 
or more properly the meeting-house, in which I wor- 
shipped, the first Episcopal and the first Unitarian 
church in Massachusetts, — the old King's Chapel, — 
was to me from my earliest years an object of affection. I 
remember the impressions it made on me, a boy three 
years old carried into the venerable building in the 
arms of my father's hired man. How far it is well to 
burn the lamp of sacrifice in building our churches, I 
am not prepared to say. The old Puritan meeting- 
houses were bare, but they were dignified and character- 
istic ; but there were, and are, temples most pretentious 
and inappropriate for worship. Truth compels me to 
admit that there were, in my youthful days, some dry 
and to me wearisome preachers, some whom I dreaded 
to see mount the pulpit stairs. I remember one poor 
country clergyman who boarded in a house with me, 
one room serving for study as well as for chamber for 
him, his sweet, delicate wife and perpetually crying 
baby. Emerson says that where there is cinder in the 
iron, there is cinder in the pay ; and so, inversely, where 
there was weariness in the study, there was weariness 
in the sermon. There were in those days more predes- 
tined clergymen, predestined by their earthly father, and 
hence more indifferent, incapable preachers than now. 



208 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" I went to church when a boy as everybody, young 
and old, went, as a matter of course. Such was the 
universal custom, and it was an age of authority, of 
conformity to custom, few questions asked, — none 
of the young. It would not be fair, however, to infer 
that the community was more interested in religion be- 
cause the attendance on church was more universal. 
We lived then in walled towns ; the walls were not very 
near, nor were they any more visible than the horizon. 
The radius of the circuit of the walls was the accom- 
plishment of a one-horse shay; society was restricted 
by this primitive locomotion; within this compass they 
must find their resources. Hence an interest in local 
occasions; — Commencement Day, Election Day, Inde- 
pendence Day, Fast Day, Thanksgiving Day, were the 
regular holidays ; their ceremonies and exercises were 
attended, and college and school exhibitions and minis- 
ters' ordinations were included. One has only to go 
back a few generations further to find that Judge 
Sewall found great refreshment in funerals. There 
might have been meagreness and provincialism in 
such a limited circle of existence, but there was also 
much heartiness, much co-operation, much warmth. 
To me those days of familiar intercourse with every- 
body, of identification with and interest in every mem- 
ber of a homogeneous native population, of knowledge 
of and participation in every event, — private and 
public, — seem in retrospect far pleasanter than life 
under the present amorphous, alien and inverted 
conditions. 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS RELIGIO}^ 209 

" But in comparing the past with the present I am 
sure that among the preachers of to-day is a more 
manly, thoughtful and independent tone than then pre- 
vailed. I say prevailed, for no preacher of to-day has 
surpassed the leaders, some of whom I have enumerated. 
The change in the position of the clergyman since the 
day of our Puritan ancestors marks the steady progress 
of humanity. No longer an autocrat, no longer a law- 
giver, no longer disputing endlessly about a covenant 
of faith and a covenant of works, about justification by 
sanctification, no longer hanging witches or denounc- 
ing heretics, his mission now is, according to Phillips 
Brooks, to bring spiritual influence to struggluig human- 
ity, — filled with reverence for God and love for man, 
to be a mediator between God and man, devoting him- 
self to matters of vital importance, to charity, tem- 
perance, political reform rather than to theology, and 
working in concert with men of other creeds, but with 
the same end in view. The glacier seems to lie as 
motionless as the rocky walls which enclose it; never- 
theless it moves, and the Puritan of the first generation 
has been slowly evolved into the Unitarian of the pres- 
ent generation. The churches of Boston and of the 
old towns, with hardly an exception, have become Uni- 
tarian. It has been alleged that Unitarianism has not 
spread, for it has not compassed sea and land to make 
one proselyte. This is true nominally and false vir- 
tually; it has modified all creeds, liberalized all sects; 
it has enjoined and fostered practical Christianity. If 
questioned as to their work, the Unitarian pastors 
might well reply, in the words of their Master: 'The 

14 



210 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers 
are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the poor have the 
Gospel preached to them.' 

" I have endeavored to explain why I go to church : 

"1. I was brought up in the days of the Jewish 
Sabbath, when attendance was enjoined on all, sick and 
well, old and young. 

"2. Eleven Puritan clergymen among my direct an- 
cestors infused into me the habit and the enjoyment. 

" 3. I happened to grow up at an interesting period, 
when the churches were very much alive, and I have 
since been very fortunate in my pastors. 

"4. I believe, with John Adams, that it is one of 
four institutions to be preserved as the foundation of 
our liberty, happiness and prosperity, and that it is the 
part of a good citizen to support them all. 

"Why young people do not attend church as their 
fathers did is partly explained by larger liberty of action 
and locomotion, by greater weariness after the work of 
the week, by the increased resources of books, etc., 
etc. ; and I can only further account for it by remem- 
bering that every generation is born and bred under new 
influences not easily analyzed ; that the books in which 
we delighted bore our children, that their habits of 
thought, their views of life, differ from ours, and that 
amono; these differences is this of church attendance. 
But notwithstanding this apparent indifference to reli- 
gion, as at times we complain of an apparent indifference 
to politics, what generation could manifest a greater 
reverence for and attachment to the four institutions 
John Adams hoped would be preserved than did this 



SUNDRY OCCUPATIONS 211 

generation, when our militia, true to the teachings of 
the church and the school, rallied in every town in our 
Commonwealth, marched to the defense of their coun- 
try and for four long years battled for freedom and 
humanity ? 

Their fathers' God before them moved 
An awful Guide, in smoke and flame. 

If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother 
and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own 
life, also, he cannot be my disciple. 

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his 
life for his friend." 

"What with business and the Safety Vaults, Harvard 
College and public affairs, as serious occupations ; with 
studies genealogical and antiquarian, matters dramatic 
and matters military, and the care of his country seats, 
as pursuits more purely pleasurable, the list of Colonel 
Lee's occupations seems longer than that of most of us. 
Yet he found time for many other tastes. When he 
was in College the Med. Fac. made him professor of 
" Miscellaneousness and Gout." The "gout" symbol- 
ized his aristocratic tendencies, which in later j^ears 
remained quite visible, though always in tranquil sub- 
jection to his sound sense and good taste; the "miscel- 
laneousness" abode with him, in luxuriant development, 
all his days. 

He was very fond of music, and had a fair knowledge 
of it. When a young man he played upon the flute; 
he also had a good voice and sang very well. His 
strong feeling for hymns, as sung in the churches, to 
which he alludes as affecting him in his boyhood, 



212 MEMOIR OF COLOXEL HEXRY LEE 

stayed with him all his life. During his earlier days, 
in every parlor of the United States or the United 
Kingdom, the graceful versicles of Tom Moore were 
warbled or sung, according to the capacity of the young 
lady performer; while the songs of Burns fascinated a 
smaller but more discriminating circle. For many years 
after these had passed out of fashion the Italian Opera 
continued in possession of the stage. To all these 
melodious forms of music, entwined with the delight- 
ful memories of youth. Colonel Lee remained warmly 
loyal all his life ; and indeed he was very fond of sing- 
ing these airs. Later the innovation of the noisy and 
clangorous German school he received with sarcastic 
hostility, and used derisively to pronounce tlie name 
of Wagner in the broadest English fashion, as an in- 
genious indication of his crushing contempt for that 
composer. Military music naturally pleased him, and 
at one time, when some reminiscences of the old Boston 
Brigade Band were called up in the newspapers, 
" Senex " wrote : " I remember some of the tunes they 
used to play. In those days there was slow time, com- 
mon time, and quick time, and all escorts marched at 
slow time in keeping with the dignity or solemnity of 
the occasion. 

"There were the Nahant March and the Cadets' 
IMarch, much played, and of quick-steps there was 
Otis' Quick-Step (named for William F. Otis, captain 
of the New England Guards after William H. Gar- 
diner), also Willis' Kentbugle IMarch and his Quick- 
Step, then Russell Sturgis' Quick-Step by Rieff. 
Russell Sturgis was captain of the Boston Light Infan- 



SUNDRY OCCUPATIONS 213 

try, the handsomest man in uniform I ever saw. There 
was a very popular quick-step called pas redouble. 

"All these tunes, and others not known to me by 
name, I can whistle to-day, so firmly are they imprinted 
on my memory; in fact I induced Burditt to play the 
Russell Sturgis Quick-Step, long ago laid aside, by 
whistling it again and again. These marches expired 
in the thirties and were followed by Wood-Up, and many 
more marches that I never knew, or have forgotten. 

" There was a charm in the wood and reed and bugle 
music not conveyed by the brass bands, in my 
opinion." 

He had also a fancy for amusing his leisure hours 
with domestic architecture, and often worked quite 
hard in drawing designs. Some of these were never 
used; but many others took actual shape, for in the 
course of his long and busy life he several times had 
occasion to build or to remodel houses. But whether 
be was practising this art with a view to actual use, 
or simply as a pastime, he was more thorough than 
architects for hire are wont to be in their work. He 
used to cut out the pieces of furniture for the several 
rooms, in cardboard, upon a scale, and try them in 
their places upon his plans, so that the real or imagined 
occupants should not find that they had paid their 
money for a house wherein there was a dining-room 
with no possibility of a sideboard, or a bedroom with 
no place for a bed. A further illustration of his skill 
in the building art was furnished when his brother-in- 
law, Edward C. Cabot, was chosen as the architect for 
the Boston Theatre. Mr. Lee was abroad, and he 



214 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

visited many theatres, and studied carefully their plans 
and all the details of equipment. The knowledge which 
he brought home proved highly useful, but by no means 
exclusively as furnishing models for imitation; for the 
Boston Theatre was long admitted to be far in advance 
of European standards, alike in construction, in general 
plan and in details. 

In drawing, otherwise than architectural, he was 
not without facility ; he found much amusement occa- 
sionally in sketching faces and figures of persons 
about him. But tins was a mere amusement, not to 
be taken too seriously. It may, however, be safely 
believed that there were other and more worldly rea- 
sons than his skill with the pencil which led to his 
being made one of the trustees of the Museum of 
Fine Arts. 

Still another resource for leisure hours lay in his 
fondness for literature. His conversation, his writings, 
his speeches all show how wide was his field of reading 
and especially how marked were his tiistes ; for in attain- 
ing such familiarity with his favorite authors, he must 
have re-read them many times. Foremost should be 
named Shakespeare, or rather some of the plays of Shake- 
speare, for he had decided favorites and there were some 
for which he cared little. For Scott also he had that 
fondness which is felt by every gentleman sturdy of body 
and mind. Emerson he regarded with reverence, as 
most New Englanders have done for several years past, 
though they did not all gain light so early as Colonel 
Lee did. He liked to read aloud ; and his family and 
friends were as glad to give hini opportunities as he 



PERSONAL TRAITS 215 

was to avail of them. For he read very well; if he 
had not versatility for the presentation of all parts, he 
at least gave intelligence and feeling to all, and ren- 
dered many to admiration; his voice was flexible and 
asrreeable, and his manner and intonation were those of 
a cultivated gentleman, never disfigured by the slightest 
touch of that terrible rhetoric which makes most read- 
ing aloud a thing to shudder at; so his reading gave 
pleasure, not pain, which is rare praise indeed. He 
was further a careful student of the history of the 
United States, and had in his mind's eye not less vivid 
pictures of the national statesmen than he had of the 
old New England worthies. 

Biographers often find it wise to forget to mention 
the personal appearance and the manners of those whose 
career they are recording. But no such embarrassment 
attends the memoirist of Colonel Lee. In his famous 
review of Rev. Dr. Hale's " Story of Massachusetts " he 
cited, among that gentleman's unfortunate errors, this 
sentence: "Very remarkable personal beauty has, for 
at least a century, been evident in the immediate de- 
scendants of her [Anne Hutchinson's] blood;" as to 
which he wrote: "A large number of her direct de- 
scendants (including the present writer) have not been 
co-heirs of this comeliness; but as she is only one of 
two hundred and fifty-six ancestors, they do not hold 
her responsible, as it may have been some other of the 
crowd qui yi'ctait pas si hien.'^ He had, however, no 
need to disparage himself. He was a very fine-look- 
ing man, — tall, of vigorous form and carrying himself 
well. If he fortunately escaped too great regularity of 



216 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

feature, and if the statuary would not have selected 
him to be perpetuated in marble, the painter certainly 
would have desired no better subject for his canvas. 
His features were strong and manly, and his face was 
full of expression, varying in sympathy with the mood 
of the moment ; sometimes he was thoughtful, but more 
often in conversation humor enlivened his face ; nearly 
always one saw plainly a mingling of shrewdness which 
might not easily be deceived, with kindliness which 
would be readily moved; yet he was quite capable of 
sterner aspect under provocation. His bearing was 
simple, but very distinguished. No one ever looked 
more fully the gentleman, and his manners were those 
of the born aristocrat, — unaffected, but of a certain 
courtliness, — what is commonly described as of the 
"old school." He looked as the best type of English 
gentleman ought to look, according to the ideal cher- 
ished by readers of Addison, Walter Scott, Thackeray 
and Washington Irving ; — "an English gentleman in 
America," as used also to be said of George Washing- 
ton, — without prejudice to the entire Americanism of 
either General Washington or Colonel Lee. His cousin, 
Colonel T. Wentworth Higginson, said: "His manner 
and bearing were exceedingly English, without the 
slightest effort to be so. When I was in England last 
year I saw a half-dozen persons who had Colonel Lee's 
air and bearing." 

The ways of little children pleased his kindly sense 
of humor, and he liked to read or to sing to them, to 
joke with them and lead them to be saucy to him, when 
he would pretend to be shocked. Even when he was 






Henrif Lee 



PERSONAL TRAITS 217 

a young man, "lie liked to play with babies; and in 
later life, however tired and worried he was, he was 
always happy with the baby in his arms." 

He had also the English love of horses, and always 
had good ones in his stable for riding and driving. He 
rode well; and when in the saddle, upon one of his 
mettlesome animals, he looked more English than ever. 
One of the family warns that Colonel Lee would not 
forgive one who should write of him without a word 
also for his horse, "Tom Tug," and preserves this 
tribute: — "The name, taken from the play of 'The 
Waterman,' described Tom's way of going; for he 
pulled up hill and down, especially up ; whirled round 
corners ; and stood like a lion-rampant at the door. He 
had great courage, which never failed; though after the 
age of twenty-five or thirty he was often too feeble to be 
gay. The Colonel talked to him a great deal, and de- 
clared that Tom liked to be praised, and that he enjoyed 
terrifying timid people. Tom never hurt anyone, and 
on some important occasions was as sedate as a hearse- 
horse. He was older than any of the Colonel's chil- 
dren, who felt much respect for him as well as affection ; 
indeed, one little boy had a wa}^ of standing in the stall 
and embracing Tom's hind leg, while the animal stood 
perfectly still watching him."' 

A word should be said as to the colonel's habits of dress, 
even at the risk of the charge of triviality; indeed he him- 
self would have been very indignant if an unappreciative 
silence should leave him without a compliment in this 
matter. "He was a great dandy," said one of his inti- 
mate relatives ; but " dandy " is hardly the word which 



218 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

is wanted : rather, he was a very well-dressed man and 
punctiliously neat, for he was not one of those who con- 
ceive that the descendant of a line of gentlemen takes 
thereby the privilege of being a sloven. Moreover, 
he had the good sense to know that to be "well 
set-up " conveys a practical advantage in one's rela- 
tions with others. But the interesting fact, which 
makes it proper to mention such lowly things as frieze 
and broadcloth, is that his costume was always re- 
markably well conceived; it evinced his dramatic skill; 
he appreciated his own appearance, manners and char- 
acter, and happily adapted his clothes to them; he 
dressed his part in the world to perfection, and it is 
a noteworthy and characteristic fact which should be 
recorded. 

The last subject upon which he evinced his interest 
in public affairs was the recent "war," so called, with 
Spain. There is among his papers what seems to be a 
rough copy, in pencil, of a note as follows : 

" I am lying ill, not allowed to use my pen, — my 
illness being partly caused by my extreme distress at 
our precipitation into an inexcusable war. Why should 
we attempt the solution of an impracticable problem? 
Spain offers a cessation of hostilities and to have the 
question of the Maine left to an impartial tribunal. 
What more could we ask at the end of a successful 
war? 

" Ought we not to meet and protest in a most solemn 
manner against this armed intervention, a measure 
contrary to justice, contrary to our best traditions and 
directly opposed to the fervent wishes of a majority of 



SPANISH WAR; DEATH 219 

our people? Might not such meetings here and in 
New York bring Congressmen to their senses, even at 
this hour? 

" Yours anxiously, 

"Henry Lee." 

His son-in-law, Dr. Frederick C. Shattuck, was call- 
ing upon him at this time, and Colonel Lee said to him: 
"So you are an Imperialist! Pray, how does that hap- 
pen ? " and then continued, answering his own question : 
" I remember that when I was a Free Soiler in the days 
before the Civil War, my uncle. Dr. Jackson, then an 
aged man, an old-time Whig and conservative of 
course, said to me one day: * Harry, how, under the 
sun, can it be that you are a Free Soiler?' and I re- 
plied to him: 'Well, sir, you see I am a young man 
and you are an old one.' " 

In December, 1897, Colonel Lee severed his con- 
nection with the firm of Lee, Higginson & Co., hav- 
ing the good sense to apply the quotation which he 
had prematurely made to the Tavern Club: — that it 
was 

— time to be old 
To take in sail. 

In fact, it was evident that he was breaking. He 
had, however, the happy fortune to escape the physical 
and mental distress of senility. His mind retained its 
force, and while his bodily strength waned, he suffered 
no prolonged illness of body. He died at his house 
in Brookline, November 24, 1898. Naturally, at his 
funeral in the stone church on the hill there were few 



220 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

contemporaries, but there was a more impressive gather- 
ing of personal friends and of eminent citizens than 
often comes together at the burial of one who has led 
the life of a private individual, and who dies at the 
age of eighty-one years. 

After Colonel Lee's death Major Henry L. Higgin- 
son wrote, in his memory, the following admirable and 
eminently just and discriminating pages: 

"AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN 

" We perhaps too often say of a valued friend that he 
is a man apart from the rest of men, yet of Henry Lee 
it was true. 

" His father, a man of large intelligence and enterprise, 
was absorbed in political-economical ideas and forgetful 
of ordinary rules and cares ; so from early youth the son, 
while admiring his father's good points, was forced to 
supplement the weak points by taking up cares and re- 
sponsibilities unusual for so young a man. 

"Perhaps from early memories he hated business in 
the ordinary sense, that is, buying and selling, borrow- 
ing and lending, and always declared himself a wretched 
business man. Yet he well understood the great laws 
of trade and enterprise, and when he determined to 
build his safety-deposit vaults he prepared himself for 
the task with the utmost care, and therefore he suc- 
ceeded. This venture was quite in keeping with the 
workings of liis mind, which did not permit the con- 
stant change of attitude, the presentation of only one 



I 



AN a:\ierican gentleman 221 

side to himself or to others, that a purchase first and 
then a sale of an article or an investment requires. He 
saw the entire propriety of the transaction, hut did not 
like it. 

" He gladly acquired money in the regular fashion, but 
under no pretext could he he induced to accept one 
penny that he had not fully earned — either by work or 
by venture of capital. He gladlj- spent money for gen- 
erous and healthy living, for friends, for education, art 
or benevolence. Yet here he also, asked full value for 
his expenditure, while insisting that it should not be 
immoderate, for he asked measure and fitness in all 
things. 

"He liked place and honors such as in his opinion 
were due to him ; but he flatly refused the degree of 
LL.D. from Harvard University, although he admired 
and trusted the men who offered this distinction only 
less than he loved and venerated the University. His 
sense of justice and of fitness told him that it was not 
his due, and no matter who else of lesser merit had 
received the honor he would none of it. 

" This sense of justice, of truth, was strong and abid- 
ing and showed itself in other ways. With a keen 
sense of humor and great insight into character, united 
with this love of justice, he felt the good and bad 
points of men and women, and often mentioned them, — 
sometimes with a caustic tongue. No man treated his 
true friends more liberally to criticism and praise, to 
reproof and love, than he. 

" The life in which he delighted and of which he had 
a full share was in the woods and garden, which he 



222 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

with his own hands tended; in his library or in his 
dining-room, surrounded by his family and friends, 
whom he entertained with his humorous stories and 
remarks. Wherever he might be, there was society in 
a high sense. 

" Of books he read the best and highest and knew 
them well — history, genealogy, essays, poetry. Shak- 
speare and the Bible he revelled in. Not a scholar 
himself, he was good company for scholars, or at least 
for men of ripe culture, and he highly prized education 
of a simple, healthy nature. With his death the old 
town shrinks and dwindles for us. We lose the pic- 
ture which he could call up of its sober dignity, its 
"sunny-faced" old houses set in terraced gardens, its 
colonial traditions. To-day nobody can tell so many 
curious and characteristic traits and tales of by-gone 
days and generations as he. His accurate and power- 
ful memory could recall the Boston of three-quarters 
of a century ago, and it retained in its proper sequence 
and in its due place each event of public moment since 
then, each change for gain or loss in the rapidly grow- 
ing town. 

Love thou thy hand with love far-brought 

From out the storied Past and used within the Present. 

Nobody will replace him. 

" In affairs of the nation he always from his youth took 
a deep interest and a vigorous, independent, thoughtful 
part — being a respecter of true morals and laws rather 
than of men, for these last must meet his standard of 
life or sink in his estimation. He criticised unsparingly 



AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN 223 

wrong or low public acts of public men without regard 
to personal relations, past or present. Few men have 
oftener irritated their near friends, few men have held 
them faster. 

" Of his own strong and weak points he spoke frankly, 
but he never thought to change them, for he was con- 
tent to live his own life in the sight of all men, freely, 
kindly, consciously, — to make his comments, do his 
deeds and take the consequences. It was a life ani- 
mated with a clear, humane, noble purpose and guided 
b}^ courage and high ideals without asceticism. 

" In fact, he seemed not to be a man of great parts, 
but of a singular quality springing from unusual purity 
and nobility of character, — from high aims, high think- 
incr and livinsr. The truth held for him a foremost 
place in the universe, because it was the truth and be- 
cause it was simple and beautiful. 

"One would not say of him that he was heavenly 
minded, for he liked the world well ; but lofty-minded, 
pure-toned, he certainly was. 

" These qualities and these aims, purposely cultivated 
with care, gave us a true gentleman of charming man- 
ners and thoughts, a delightful companion, a trusty, 
loyal friend, alwa3'S ready to stand up in church and 
testify to his beliefs, — possessed with a full sense of his 
duty to his country, to man, to God. 

" Men and women of all degrees trusted, respected, 
enjoyed, loved him in unusual measure; for he had 
words and thoughts of service and of affection toward 
them all, — the boys and girls, the old men and women, 
— the unfortunate and the prosperous. 



224 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" We could always count on his coolness and courage 
in a storm, but when the sun came out once more, he 
chided us and bade us make ready our sails for another 
storm, which was sure to come, — another instance of 
his balance and judgment. 

" It was a true, humane, warm nature, which bore the 
great troubles of life well and made much of the simple 

joys. 

" Lastly, as he grew older, like a noble, healthy fruit, 
he ripened and grew mellow year by year. Was not 
this a proof of true quality? 

'"Tis well that he died quietly (as he had for some 
years foretold), and at the end of this changing cen- 
tury, for of late he was not alwaj's in touch with the 
eager, modern world, and he might have suffered from 
the virtues and the sins of the next centur}^ 

" There has passed to another world a rare gentleman 
and friend, — a public citizen without reproach. 

" His figure and his life tell us that, if we choose the 
noble path which he has trod, we also may live in his 
high, pure atmosphere, may meet our fellows on the 
same frank, kindly footing, and may brighten their 
lives as he has done. 

"Let us try." 



SELECTIONS FEOM THE WRITINGS 

AND SPEECHES OF COLONEL 

HENRY LEE 



I 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
GOVERNOR ANDREW 

I HAVE been requested to draw a sketch of Governor 
Andrew, and as thirty-seven years have passed since my 
service to him began, and absorption in private affairs 
has dimmed my remembrance of the events of the war, 
I avail myself of some reminiscences written years ago 
at the request of Mr. Whipple, who was then engaged 
upon his biography. I avail of these, as a foundation 
for my sketch, in spite of their necessarily egotistic 
character, because of their superior vividness. 

Although I was in daily attendance on Governor 
Andrew several years, I do not believe I can throw any 
light upon a character at first so generally misappre- 
hended, at last so universally understood. 

Meeting the Governor just after his election at a 
political levee I refrained from joining in the congratu- 
lations generally expressed, because I distrusted his fit- 
ness for the office at such a critical period. . . . 

I had known the Governor for some years as secre- 
tary of the Boston Port Society, of which I was a 
director. I had noted what was said of him and by him 
as a legislator and pubhc speaker. I believed him to 
be zealous, disinterested, — a fearless advocate of liberty 
for men of all shades and races, but I was afraid he 



228 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

might be one-sided and indiscreet, deficient in common 
sense and practical ability. So when, in the first days 
of January, 1861, I unexpectedly received a summons to 
a position upon his staff, I was agitated by my desire 
to perform some little service for my country in the 
approaching crisis and by my reluctance to attach my- 
self to a leader whose judgment I distrusted. After a 
frank explanation of my embarrassment, finding that 
the Governor still desired my aid, I reluctantly ac- 
cepted the appointment. 

If I, a Radical, regarded Governor Andrew with dis- 
trust, what was the horror and indignation excited in 
the hearts of Conservatives at his accession to office? 
You remember their wailings and lamentations. . . . 
I recall the personal expression of surprise and regret 
from friends and acquaintances at my connection with 
this supposed foolish fanatic. The whole community 
was dismayed at the imminent conflict. Conservatives 
did not believe it would have been irrepressible but for 
the fanaticism of leaders like Andrew and they liated 
and reviled him accordingly. They were right, and 
stiU more right were the Republicans who elected him 
Governor. If the vox populi was ever the vox Dei, it 
was then. Governor Andrew was one of the very few 
who saw clearly through this day's business, who antici- 
pated the awful duration and dimensions of the conflict, 
and yet dared to go forward and encounter the certain 
perils, privations and anguish involved, rather than en- 
dure peace and prosperity purchased at the cost of 
self-respect. The conflict would not have been irre- 
pressible but for Andrew and such as he, the sober, 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 229 

steady, country-loving, God-fearing Puritans of New 
England. 

A peace man, his first charge was to prepare for war. 
South Carolina had seceded, other Southern States had 
called conventions to consider similar action. He had 
visited Washington the previous December to gather 
information, and convinced by what he Jiad observed 
there and by his conferences and subsequent corre- 
spondence with General Scott, Mr. Adams, and others, 
that war was inevitable and imminent, he sent trusty 
messengers the very day of his inauguration to the 
Governors of the other New England states to lay 
before them the information he possessed and to counsel 
them to follow his example of putting the militia on a 
war footing, ready to go to the defence of Washington 
at a day's notice ; for the War Department had been for 
eight years under the control of Jefferson Davis and of 
Floyd successively, arms and equipments had been 
transferred to Southern arsenals, the bulk of our little 
army was at the Southwest under the traitor, Twiggs ; 
Toucey had scattered our navy over distant seas, and 
our treasury was depleted. Buchanan, the abject crea- 
ture of the South, feared to act with decision ; indeed, 
so far as he was capable of feeling, he sympathized with 
the South. 

The Governor at once sifted the militia, ordering the 
discharge of every man unable or unfiling to go into 
immediate active service ; he visited armories and in- 
spected companies ; he applied to the federal govern- 
ment to repair and arm the forts in the harbor of Boston 
and elsewhere. At Fort Winthrop there were no guns; 



230 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

at Fort Warren one gun ; at Fort Independence twenty 
guns. He despatched Colonel Sargent to visit the 
President elect and confer with him. On the 2d 
February by my suggestion he summoned the venerable 
General Thayer (for many years superintendent, and 
practically re-creator of West Point), Lieutenants (now 
Generals) Gordon and Andrews (both graduates of that 
Academy and officers in the Mexican War), to advise 
him as to preparations. A memorandum of clothing 
and equipments needed was submitted to and approved 
by them and the articles were at once ordered by the 
Governor without the advice or knowledge of General 
Butler, to whom Mr. Parton attributes this provision. 
This erroneous assertion having been called to my 
attention by the editor of the Daily Advertiser, I in- 
serted in that paper the following contribution : [See 
ante, p. 58]. 

Colonel Ritchie was then sent to Washington to con- 
sult as to the probable date of the call for troops, the 
routes they should take, the equipment they would 
need. To all these inquiries Colonel Ritchie brought 
definite replies and much information besides from 
General Scott and other soldiers and lawmakers to 
whom he was accredited, confirming their advice to the 
Governor during his own visit to Washington in the 
previous December. 

Througli me, a quondam merchant, the Governor 
ascertained the names, capacities, whereabouts and 
ownerships of the steamers plying to and from Boston, 
which might be used for transports, and it would mortify 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 231 

some of their owners if I should expose their reluctance 
to impart information or furnish transportation. In 
this work Mr. John M. Forbes was the agent; from 
this early date until the close of the war his devotion to 
the State was absolute, and " his purse, his person, 
his extremest means lay aU unlocked to her occasions. " 

By the second week in February all these inquiries 
and preparations had been made and the Governor sat 
awaiting the summons he knew must soon come from 
the beleaguered capital, enduring with apparent in- 
difference the daily jeers in the Conservative and Demo- 
cratic journals at the " two thousand overcoats." You 
had only to mention the word overcoat or speak of 
*' kissing the musket " (you remember, of course, the 
presentation of the old Lexington King's Arm to the 
State), to excite the risibles or call down the objurga- 
tions of any of the scoffers, to whom these timely acts 
seemed the height of folly or wickedness. 

In the eyes of the scoffer the " kissing the musket" 
especially looked ridiculous, almost hysterical, and was 
made much fun of by the newspapers, among others by the 
Boston Post. At this exciting time of dread expecta- 
tion, those who were by their position obliged to act 
were subjected to ridicule or censure, and I availed of 
an editorial in .the Post to plead for more considerate 
treatment in that journal. The editorial was a rebuke 
to the Republican papers for their abuse of President 
Buchanan, reminding them of the respect due to the 
dignity of position, and I applied the reasoning in be- 
half of the Governor. I remember as if it were yester- 
day that I scratched this hasty note to Colonel Greene 



232 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

just as I was going up to the Governor with a supposi- 
titious list of clothing and equipments needed for the 
militia to be sent to the front. Upon my return from 
the State House I found this reply : 

♦' Boston, Feb. 4, '61. 
" Henry Lee, Esq. : 

" Dear Sir, — I thank you kindly for your friendly 
note and shall endeavor to be governed by its advice. 
" Your obliged and obdt. Servant, 

"C. G. Greene." 

I have often expatiated upon this courteous and 
magnanimous acceptance of my remonstrance by an 
editor whose satire was very effective, and lately I had 
begun to think that I must have invented the whole 
transaction when upon an old file I pounced upon this 
note. I desire to record this act and to add that it was 
only one of many of the same tenor during the war, as 
I shall have occasion to show. 

Old acquaintances ceased to bow to the Governor, or, 
what was more cutting, conveyed disapproval by 
austerity of manner. At Salem, whither the staff 
accompanied him for the first visit of ceremony to 
witness an exhibition drill of the Salem Light Infantry, 
their old aristocratic company, the past officers and 
members, leaders of society, though proud of their 
corps and eager to figure in the few festivities of the 
decaying town, sternly fasted, absented themselves, to 
express their extreme disapprobation of the Governor 
and all his ways. It was characteristic of the old town 
as it would have been of Little Pedlington. 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 233 

At last, after six weeks of sickening suspense, on 
Monday, the 15th April, came the appalling summons in 
a despatch from Senator Wilson, for twenty companies of 
infantry, followed on Tuesday'' by a formal requisition. 
Before noon of Monday the Governor had agreed with 
the adjutant general what regiments should be ordered, 
halls had been engaged, and all necessary preparations 
made for lodging and feeding the troops, and early 
Tuesday morning four regiments reported, marching 
through Boston in a driving storm of sleet and rain. I 
should not dare to say what regiment, what company, 
first reported, what man first enlisted ; there are so many 
conflicting claims. From that hour till the dawn of 
Sunday, the 21st April, we all had to work night and 
day, and, assuming the roles of armorers, quartermasters, 
commissaries, to obtain from raw officers the lists of arms, 
clothing, equipments and rations required, to collect and 
distribute or pack and forward and invoice these, to 
organize a Medical Board, to examine surgeons and pro- 
vide them with their instruments and supplies, to engage 
steamers and railroads to transport the troops, and finally 
to accompany the Governor as he presented to them the 
standards under which they were sent forth and spoke 
words of encouragement and thanks. In looking back I 
wonder that these preparations were so complete, con- 
sidering the rawness of those who made them ; but what 
you can get out of a man depends only on the pressure 
you subject him to ; and the weight of responsibility on 
the Governor and, to a less degree, on those who were 
striving to assist, heavy indeed, developed vigilance and 
circumspection. 



234 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

About a week after the despatch of the three months' 
troops, when I was in the Governor's office writing for 
him, a distinguished Senator burst into the chamber, 
fraught with advice, and began catechising the Governor 
as to this and that measure of preparation, surprised 
that they had been ah-eady adopted. At last the enu- 
meration was exhausted and the Senator took leave, but 
striding in again, — " Oh, by the bye, Andrew, you will 
need to organize a Medical Board to examine surgeons 
and provide them with their instruments and supplies." 
While I was musing the fire burned. I could stand it 
no longer and, regardless of propriety, I tartly informed 
the statesman that this matter had been fully attended 
to a fortnight before. He gave a snort of surprise and 
again departed. As he closed the door I could not help 
exclaiming, " Teach your granny to lap ashes," and the 
Governor and I had a good laugh at this well-meant 
super-serviceable visit. 

In the midst of this unceasing work and turmoil came 
the news of the attack upon the 6th Regiment in Balti- 
more, maddening to fury the whole community, already 
excited by the unwonted scenes of that memorable week. 
The war had begun, and Massachusetts, that denounced 
State, which was to have been left out in the cold, had 
despatched within one week five Regiments of Infantry, 
oyie Battalion of Riflemen, and one Battery of Artillery, 
armed, clothed and equipped. Behind every great move- 
ment stands the man, and that man behind this movement 
was the ridiculed, despised fanatic, John A. Andrew. 
As the least backwardness on the part of Massachusetts, 
whose sons had done more than all others to promote the 



REmNISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 235 

"irrepressible conflict," would have endangered the 
Union and exposed us to the plottings and concessions 
of the Conservatives and " Copperheads," so her prompt 
response in consequence of the courage and foresight of 
her Governor strengthened the timid, rebuked the dis- 
affected, cemented the Union, fused the whole country 
into one glow of patriotism. Saint Paul was not more 
suddenly or more thoroughly converted than were many 
of those who had up to that week been loudest in their 
lamentations or denunciations of the Governor. Rich 
men poured in their gifts, which were placed in the 
keeping of some good bankers for a " Massachusetts 
Soldiers' Fund." Conservatives and Democrats rushed 
to pay their respects and to applaud the very acts which 
they had so deplored and ridiculed ; men of all ages and 
occupations and opinions proffered their services in 
various capacities; companies were organized in every 
town, funds were lavishly contributed for the formation 
of new regiments. The whole community from that time 
forth, with occasional relapses, owned Governor Andrew 
for their leader. 

Still there were a few exceptions to this loyalty : aged 
men remembering the trying times of 1812 and the tra- 
ditions of the Revolution ; old Whigs who looked proudly 
back to the days when " sixteen aristocrats from Beacon 
Street in cowhide boots " marched in a good old Whig 
procession, and who loathed the obscure, base-born lead- 
ers of Free Soil and Republicanism ; perverse men, who, 
cultivating perversity in lack of other distinction, sneered 
at this fuss about the " damned niggers ; " kindly men, 
loyal to old friends at the South, who accepted their 



236 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

version of the issue ; sordid men, exasperated at the in- 
terruption of their business ; fashionable people, annoyed 
at the interruption of their festivities and priding them- 
selves on their indifference. " We are not a war family," 
she said, with a toss of her head, and yet the only claim 
the family had to social distinction it derived from a 
Revolutionary martyr. 

It was amusing, sometimes exciting, to follow the 
Governor, after he became a lion, into certain circles, 
knowing that their invitation was due to curiosity more 
than to admiration, and to see him tarrying not in the 
ante-chamber of ceremony, but blissfully unconscious of 
the condescension implied and honor conferred, march. 
briskly and salute cordially and heartily his hostess, 
routing her from her preconcerted formalities. This 
apparent or real (I never could tell which) uncon- 
sciousness, this frankness and heartiness of manner, this 
evident sincerity, won him real regard among men of 
very antagonistic opinions. " Your Governor is a good 
little fellow, though I don't agree with him," was an 
observation constantly made. One gentleman of aristo- 
cratic feeling, but thoroughly appreciative of character 
and intellect, was so captivated by the Governor and so 
desirous to introduce him to some brother Conservatives, 
that he invited him to meet the two most irreclaimable 
Copperheads in the town, and he reported to me " that 
they plied the Governor with questions and arguments, 
to all of which he replied so frankly and fully that they 
parted with prejudices dissipated and esteem inspired." 
That this sincerity and earnestness attracted those who 
from afar had known him only through his speeches and 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 237 

writings was attested by the following interesting and 
unexpected visit: 

" Colonel, who do you think has been here this after- 
noon ? " asked the Governor, as I entered his office one 
day some months after the beginning of the war. 

" You have such a number and variety of guests I 
could not hazard a conjecture." 

" Well, as I was writing, a knock at the door and in 
came a gentleman, a stranger to me. ' Governor,' he 
said, * I am Mr. Horatio Seymour. We are Governors 
of contiguous States. I have read everything you have 
said or written ; I don't agree with you about anything, 
but I like you because you have convictions. I can't 
get along with Seward because he has no convictions.' " 

Then followed a long interview, during which these 
two Governors, Democrat and Republican, exchanged 
views on the burning questions freely, and at parting 
Governor Seymour said : 

" Well, Governor, you are going to and fro a good 
deal ; the next trip take me on the way and let us con- 
tinue our talk." 

" I hardly know what to make of Governor Seymour," 
said the Governor, " he seemed very sincere. I think 
he is carried away by his own subtlety, perhaps." 

The want of arms, owing to Secretary Floyd's treach- 
ery, was anticipated, and Mr. Crowninshield, offering, 
was at once despatched to England, with an armorer 
from Springfield, to procure them. The Governor pro- 
vided arms not only for Massachusetts, but aided Maine 
to get three thousand. New Hampshire two thousand ; 
he also procured for Maine three thousand more from 



238 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HEXRY LEE 

Springfield, and furnished West Virginia with two 
thousand. 

The Governor wrote, telegraphed, to everyone from 
the President down, sent successively Governors Clif- 
ford and Boutwell, Judge Hoar, Atty. Gen. Foster, 
Mr. Blair (senior), and went himself to Washington to 
implore the government to accept three years' regiments, 
but it was not until the 22nd May that permission was 
reluctantly given for recruiting six regiments, rather less 
than more. 

The Governor called attention again to forts along 
the coast, urging the President and General Wool to 
furnish guns and teachers of gunnery, we to garrison 
them with 2,000 militia. He ordered the State school- 
ship armed. He bought for the State and for under- 
writers two steamers to be used as armed transports. 
He appointed an examining board for officers, which sat 
from April 25th to May 24th, examined 641 applicants, 
rejected 39. He asked the banks to loan the United 
States $5,000,000, and the banks took that amount. He 
appointed Charles R. Lowell, Jr., Massachusetts agent 
to look after our three months' militia. 

The contrast between the Governor's prescience and 
activity and the supineness and optimism (or idiocy) of 
the War Department was most marked. The Governor's 
incessant appeals were ignored or rejected ; arms were 
refused ; guns for the forts refused ; volunteers refused. 
Baffled in his endeavors and alarmed at the supineness 
of the Secretary of War, Cameron, an extra session of 
the Legislature was called and leave obtained from it to 
organize and place five more regiments in a camp of 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 239 

preparation. At that date one hundred and ninety-two 
companies, equal to nineteen regiments, had reported, 
their representatives besieging the State House for ac- 
ceptance. Only one hundred and ten companies, or 
eleven regiments, had been authorized by the State 
and Federal Governments. It took Colonels Ritchie 
and Wetherell three weeks to collect the statistics of 
these one hundred and ninety-two companies, compare 
their claims and merits and resolve them into the num- 
ber allowed. Just as this tedious work was completed 
and every toivn, every company, every man was disaf- 
fected by the rejections and combinations, came a press- 
ing request from the Secretary of War for all the troops 
we could raise, and from that time the cry was for more 
and more. Four companies had already left the State 
tired and disheartened by these delays, to join regiments 
forming in New York, and hence a long, vexatious, fruit- 
less negotiation by letters and ambassadors to restore 
them to our service and secure for them the privileges 
of Massachusetts soldiers. 

Nor was this the only fruitless, wearisome task im- 
posed upon the good Governor by the vacillation and 
incompetency of the Federal Government. From the 
departure of three months' regiments to the close of 
the war, the work at the State House was overwhelm- 
ing. An army was to be created, organized, provided 
with arms, accoutrements, clothing, camp equipage of 
every sort, officers to be selected, not so much for what 
they knew (as the Governor said), as for what they were 
capable of learning, with a due deference to local claims 
and partialities ; graduates of West Point to be looked 



240 MExMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

up, inquired about, negotiated for, and in most instances 
refused ; the country to be explored for large and healthy 
camping grounds, these to be bargained for and prepared. 
For West Point graduates and old army officers the 
country was scoured and some twenty procured, most 
of them of great use, knowing, as they did, not only 
how to teach the drill, but also how to care for the men 
in camp and on the march, and how to steady them and 
spare them in the field, and, what was difficult to learn 
and essential to know, how to fill out papers and comply 
with Army Regulations. As to the rest, the Governor 
selected from the never-ending files of applicants ; and, 
as a general rule, their capability, their leadership, their 
intelligent care of their men, as well as their conduct in 
the field and their fortitude under wounds and imprison- 
ment and trials innumerable, were all in proportion to 
their social and moral elevation. Clerks from counting- 
rooms, young merchants and lawyers, boys from college, 
the sons of the wealthy, fresh from comfortable or lux- 
urious homes, marched away through the rain or snow, 
bore the exposure of camp or bivouac and the weariness 
of the march better than the stalwart lumbermen of 
Maine. The " shoulder-hitter," as a rule, did not go to 
war, and the rough, loud, lusty fellows, " spoiling for a 
fight," were soon satisfied and retired. I remember two 
lieutenants of artillery of this valiant outside, full of 
" war's fierce delight," waiting impatiently for conflict, 
and in the meantime sneering at a delicate young Har- 
vard graduate of 1860, a lieutenant in the same battery, 
whom they nicknamed " Pussy." The longed-for occa- 
sion came, the Peninsular campaign tested the newly 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 241 

trained soldiers, and at its close " Pussy " and a manly- 
whaleman from New Bedford were quietly discharging 
their duties, as they continued to do so long as the war 
lasted, but these boastful swaggerers had incontinently 
disappeared.^ 

Many excellent officers were culled from the militia, 
spirited young men in the ranks, or company officers, 
who were natural soldiers, but as a rule those high in 
rank were imposingly absurd. A bit of uniform, an 
unnaturally stiff carriage and rectangular movements 
when off duty, were deemed soldierly characteristics, and 
supposed by many to denote a commander, especially 
if further emphasized by a hoarse voice and peremp- 
tory speech. We had one regiment officered chiefly by 
men of this class, famous train-band captains, from whom 
much was expected. Seven companies had been organ- 
ized, and after waiting, the Governor decided to com- 
plete the regiment by adding three companies recruited 
in the country and making their commandant, a whole- 

^ Tlie enrolled militia of Massachusetts, " liable to be called into 
service by the President, the Commander-in-Chief, to execute the laws 
of the Union, to suppress insurrection and repel invasions," consisting 
of all able-bodied white male citizens between 18 and 45, with a few 
exceptions, numbered in 1860, 155,389; of which number the active or 
volunteer militia, who, by the State law, were first to be ordered into 
service, numbered 5,593, arranged into three divisions, six brigades 
each, composed of 

9 regiments » 

3 battalions f Infantry. 

3 battalions i 

8 unattached companies J emen. 

1 battalion > 

5 unattached companies ) ^'^^^7' 

2 batteries Artillery. 

16 



242 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

some, sturdy, patriotic citizen, major. At once the dyed- 
bearded captains and subalterns of crack companies of 
city modes came successively to the State House to warn 
the Governor of his mistake. 

" Oh! yes, Major was all very well, but not of 

their sort, had n't the snap (this was the quality deemed 
essential); he might suit some country regiment, but, 
etc." 

The Governor was obdurate, fortunately for the regi- 
ment and the service. The snappy colonel had the rheu- 
matism, the lieutenant colonel was drunk, and the only 
leader was the rustic major who had n't the snap, but 
who at last lost his leg and eventually liis life on the 
battle-field, while the colonel, cured of his rheumatism 
at the close of the war, became a Massachusetts brigadier, 
and some of his invalid officers prominent in the Grand 
Army. The only brigadier who entered the service 
drove all his best officers out of the regiment which he 
mismanaged. One of the three major generals, after 
bustling about aimlessly, sought a command, but soon 
sickened of his colonelcy and retired to the more con- 
genial position of sutler. 

John Hancock was disgusted when he, Colonel of the 
Independent Cadets, was not elected General of the 
Army of the Revolution ; and our militia chiefs displayed 
similar indignation, as the Governor, oblivious of their 
experience as men-at-arms, commissioned youths fresh 
from college or the shop. " Had not they trained at 
many a muster, did not they know all from tlie ' School 
of the Soldier ' to a dress parade, and behold these mere 
boys, who never even donned a uniform, are preferred ! " 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 243 

The Governor had to contend, first with the fatuity of 
self-satisfied veterans who when taken had to unlearn 
their old lessons and be taught to distinguish between 
the essential and the unessential ; then with the over- 
weening estimate of parents ; last with the mendacious 
endorsement of aspirants. A lady whom I had known 
all my life, reviving a somewhat faded friendship, sum- 
moned me to inquire why her son had not been promoted, 
expatiated upon his qualifications, his drilling under 
Salignac, etc., etc., and informed me that Ms father was 
surprised and felt ill treated, and that he never would 
have allowed Benjamin to join the regiment but for 
the assurance of his early promotion. I told her that the 
Governor had left the arrangement of his roster to the 
colonel, an accomplished army officer, and would not 
interfere, and so left her unappeased. 

A father kept complaining that his son, a most admi- 
rable youth, remained a lieutenant. I explained that the 
Governor recognized his son's worth and had offered him 
promotion in one of our new regiments ; his own had 
not been much exposed and promotion there was impos- 
sible. This the son had declined, his attachment to his 
own regiment being stronger than his ambition. He 
was killed, while only a captain, at the second attack on 
Fort Wagner, and his poor bereaved father could never 
accept the explanation. 

What constituted fitness was not clear to some appli- 
cants ; what constituted a fraud not clear to their men- 
dacious endorsers. A man presented himself, wished to 
be appointed quartermaster of a regiment then organiz- 
ing. Upon being asked his qualifications, he said, (1) 



244 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

he had trained " some " as a member of the band, (2) 
no one had been commissioned in their town, (3) he 
had a paper recommending his appointment signed by 
their State Senator, etc. As he spoke in walked the 
Senator. 

" There 's my friend," said the petitioner. " Yes ! I 
am his friend," responded the Senator, expatiating some- 
what; and then he and the applicant retired. I carried 
the papers to the Governor, remarking that neither his 
having played in the band nor his town having been 
passed over constituted a recommendation ; there re- 
mained the references. I had hardly returned to our 
room when in crept the stalwart Senator, who, finding 
himself alone with us, said : " That fellow is what we call 

in a foor devil^'' and then narrated his chequered, 

discreditable history. " But you announced yourself his 
friend ; you signed his recommendation." " Yes ! he 
came to me with his paper and I said, ' Well ! if you 
want my name, there it is.' " The applicant did not re- 
appear ; the Senator figured subsequently as the presi- 
dent of a failed bank. 

The men who steadfastly endured to the end were the 
sober, discreet, responsible citizens, and the alumni of 
our colleges — they to whom much had been given ; they 
fulfilled all and more than all expectation. Throughout 
the colleges the number was in proportion to the number 
of alumni, and the moral quality was uniform. 

In time men developed more or less talent as officers, 
some who had never found their vocation in civil life 
were in their element ; some curiously changed places 
with each other and at the close of the war changed back 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 245 

again, the civil superior becoming the mihtary inferior 
and vice versa. Of course, " we saw in part and we 
prophesied in part," and some of our propliesies were 
not fulfilled. Appearances are deceitful, I recollect 
several delicate youths who were sent to regiment after 
regiment to be rejected, but who, commissioned at last, 
proved themselves real heroes. Foreigners with military 
credentials were generally failures. One Prussian of 
undoubted experience and instruction was a sorehead, 
never contented ; one of his countrymen studied his 
music instead of his battiilion ; one Italian was neglect- 
ful of his command, another proved dishonest ; one Ger- 
man was a brave soldier, wounded badly at Ball's Bluff, 
eventually killed in battle, but was always jealous 
of his better-bred, better-educated brother officers, ab- 
surdly suspicious. But these were striking excep- 
tions ; men who by merit rose from the ranks earned 
their promotion and the warm regard of their com- 
rades. 

The officers of the three months' men were elected, as 
are all militia officers; the officers of the volunteers 
for the war were appointed by the Governor. On the 
return of the three months' regiments the Secretary 
of War gave some of the officers (presumed by this 
time to have acquired a military education) authority 
to recruit a regiment; but in September, 1861, the 
Governors of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania recalled 
the Secretary to his senses and obtained an order from 
the War Department putting the organization or re- 
organization of all regiments under the authority of the 
Governor of the State where they were recruiting. 



246 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Senator Wilson, chairman of the military committee 
o£ the Senate, proposed that the President of the United 
States should fill vacancies, but the protest of Governor 
Andrew prevailed against this foolish and uncon- 
stitutional proposal. General Butler's importunity 
wrested from the President a commission as General 
of the Department of New England, with " liberty to 
raise six regiments, and as many more as he sees fit, 
and to equip and uniform them," an order extorted by 
fear or fatigue, very costly and derogatory to the United 
States, very insulting to Governor Andrew. We had at 
the time in process of formation six regiments of infan- 
try, one regiment of cavalry, four batteries of artillery, 
one company of sharpshooters, all assigned by the 
Secretary of War, except two regiments of infantry, 
which the Governor offered to Butler. But, not satis- 
fied, he established two camps in the State, where, 
like Absalom, he promised to right the wrongs which 
any man had suffered from the Governor, and he 
forthwith agreed to commission several men who had 
been already refused commissions. After five months, 
during which he put a stop to recruiting, these dis- 
tracted volunteers wandering from camp to camp unable 
to decide among so many, after he had ransacked the 
language for terms of abuse and vituperation of the 
Governor, to whom he had a few months gone professed 
boundless gratitude, after exhausting his men and the 
treasury of the United States by his preposterous delays 
and corrupt management, Butler misconducted these 
poor devils, already rejected at the State House, down to 
Ship Island, whence, uncommissioned, they had to find 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 247 

their way back, and all his bluster and pompous pro- 
nunciamentoes went for naught. 

One charge has been brought against Governor 
Andrew, ^dz : that he kept forming new regiments 
while the old regiments with their strength of frame 
and experienced officers and well-earned credit were 
left decimated. That new regiments were organized 
while old ones dwindled is painfully true, but whoever 
reads Governor Andrew's correspondence will learn how 
hard he labored in a contrary direction, and how his 
efforts were countervailed by town magnates, selectmen 
and others, who desired to give commissions to the men 
who would bring the most recruits. There was, too, an 
invincible repugnance to entering old regiments, partly 
owing to the rough reception of recruits by these old 
soldiers, hazing and ridiculing the recruits who had 
entered the service from patriotic motives and did not 
relish such treatment. Compelled as the Governor was 
to hasten enlistments, and very desirous of avoiding a 
draft, he had to get his recruits on the terms imposed by 
the towns which raised them. Statesmanship is limited 
to accomplishing the best practicable, not tlie best ideal, 
results. 

The State has been charged with enlisting foreigners 
and freed slaves from slave States, and getting credit on 
paper for men who never appeared. The United States 
Provost Marshals fixed the number of men that each 
should furnish and the town selectmen were sometimes 
imposed upon by knavish brokers and paid bounties for 
recruits who never reported, or who deserted soon after 
enlisting. The whole number of men contributed by 



248 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HEXEY LEE 

Massachusetts to prosecute the war by sea and land was 
159,165.1 

One flagrant act of injustice to Massachusetts was the 
refusal to consider the enlistments in the navy, which 
entailed great hardship upon maritime towns which had 
been depleted of their young, serviceable men by this 
enlistment. It was not until July, 1864, near the close 
of the war that the Federal Government credited us 
with 22,360 in the navy, equal to 16,181 three years' 

I 3 months' service . 4 Regts. Infantry 
1 Battln. Riflemen 

1 Battery (Light) 3,736 

3 years' service . . 40 Regts. Infantry 
5 " Cavalry 
3 " Artillery (Heavy) 
16 Batteries (Light) 

2 Cos. Sharpshooters . . 54,187 
Re-enlistments .... 6,202 
Drafted Recruits . . . 26,091 
Regulars, etc., etc. . . 9.790 96,270 

1 year's service . . 2 Regts. Infantry 

2 Cos. 

1 Regt. Artillery (Heavy) 

8 Cos. 

7 Cos. Cavalry 4,728 

9 months' service . 17 Regts. Infantry 16,685 

100 days' service . 5 Regts. Infantry 

9 Cos. " 5,461 

90 days' service . . 13 Cos. Infantry 1,200 

128,089 
Men in Navj/. 
3 years' service 13,929 

2 years' service 3,204 

1 year's service 8,074 

956 26,163 

Enlisted from Dec. 1864 to Aug. 1805 4,913 

Total 159,165 



KEMIXISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 249 

men. Our contributions to the army and navy com- 
pleted the contingent of every town in Massachusetts, 
and left a surplus over all calls of 7,813, of which 1,214 
were colored recruits from slave States, 907 were foreign- 
ers, leaving a surplus of native recruits of 5,692. To 
this should be added 500 men who, vexed with the 
refusal of the Federal Government to accept them, 
went to New York in 1861 ; also recruits for the 99th 
N. Y. Regt. in 1861 — in all nearly 1,000 men; and this 
from a State wliere the proportion of men of arms- 
bearing age bears a very much smaller proportion to 
the population than in the Western States, to which 
our youths have emigrated. 

Of the whole number who enlisted in the military 
service of the State during the war, there were killed or 
died during the service: 442 officers, 12,534 men — just 
over ten per cent., besides a much larger number 
wounded. 

It would be an interesting and sad inquiry as to how 
many of these 13,000 men were sacrificed in consequence 
of our criminal refusal to keep a sufficient army or well- 
trained militia in time of peace, how many sacrificed by 
political generals, and how many by drunken generals 
and colonels. 

To recapitulate tlie impediments encountered by Gov- 
ernor Andrew : 

The fatuity of the Federal authorities at the beginning 
of the war, their persistent refusal to accept the volun- 
teers urged upon them by Massachusetts, through every 
channel, disaffected and cooled the ardor of many. This 
confidence in the speedy termination of the war was fol- 



250 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

lowed by an hysterical appeal for help faster than it could 
be furnished, and, against the judgment of the Governor, 
regiments were sent forward imperfectly equipped, at the 
urgent entreaty of the War Department, which straight- 
way neglected to supply the deficiencies. 

There was a plentiful lack of United States mustering 
officers, in spite of prayer and of exposition of their 
indispensableness ; then no company could be mustered 
in until the last man had been secured, consequently 
there were many delays and desertions. The United 
States olBcers detailed to transact business with the 
State were the fossils of the army, and their rigidity, 
timidity and idiocy obstructed and exasperated our 
officers, — accustomed to Yankee gumption and co- 
operation. Secretary Stanton's crankiness not only 
maddened the Governor, but seriously disaffected 
patriotic citizens. 

We had sixteen batteries of light artillery, one of 
which had been in the field since April 19, 1861; a 
majority of all the other batteries had entered near 
the beginning of the war. They had served every- 
where with honor, their officers had been used to 
command brigades of artillery, to act as chiefs of 
artillery, but were superseded by officers from nine 
other States privileged to appoint artillery field officers, 
— States, some of them, with fewer batteries and those 
of more recent date than ours. It was an outrageous 
act of injustice, as outrageous as Stanton's injustice 
to our colored troops, and as unaccountable. 

Although favoring colored enlistments, he refused 
for eighteen months to pay the colored soldiers more 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 251 

than $7 per month, while the regular pay for white 
soldiers was $13 ; and it was only when forced by the 
decision of the United States Attorney General that he 
discharged the debt to these spirited men, who decided 
to suffer rather than receive pay provisionally from 
the State. 

These are specimens of a crankiness and arbitrariness 
which was manifested in many other matters : the 
thoughtless grant of authority to importunate applicants 
to recruit regiments in the State, instead of leaving 
that power with the Governor, to whom it had been 
conceded ; and what was far more inexcusable, the un- 
limited authority given at a later period to Butler, 
authority already lodged with the Governor and there- 
fore not divisible or transferable, inflicted an insult upon 
the Governor, caused a delay of several months in 
recruiting, and reflected upon the good faith and good 
sense of Secretary Stanton and the President. 

The coast of Massachusetts, especially of Boston, 
was in imminent danger of an attack, and an appreciable 
fraction of the Governor's time and of the State's money 
was spent in repeated and fruitless endeavors to provide 
an armament. 

An immense throng of people crowded the Governor's 
chamber from morning till night, with petitions, applica- 
tions, schemes, — personal, political, military, some of 
public importance, many more frivolous or impracticable ; 
all to be listened to, discussed and disposed of ; a huge 
pile of letters received each day to be answered with 
deliberation ; besides these replies a constant corre- 



252 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

spondence to be kept up with the President, Secretaries, 
Members of Congress, in addition to the official com- 
munications to and from the War Department. 

The work at the State House, which at first devolved 
upon the Adjutant General and his clerks and the four 
Aides, was now distributed and systematized, — a 
Quartermaster General, a Commissar}'- General, a Master 
of Ordnance, a Surgeon General, all constantly occupied 
with raising, officering, arming, clothing and equipping 
a large army. Colonel Reed was appointed Quarter- 
master General, and under the order of the Governor 
and Council, set to work energetically to procure cloth- 
ing and camp equipage. Colonel Brigham made a most 
efficient and honest Commissary General. Colonel 
Charles Amory, appointed Master of Ordnance, distrib- 
uted arms and accoutrements. Surgeon General Dale 
devoted himself to the Surgical Department. The 
Adjutant General and Colonel Ritchie conducted the 
correspondence with the War Department and organized 
the regiments.^ Colonel Wetherell and I were chiefly 
occupied with receiving, recording and arranging appli- 
cations for commissions, investigating and reporting the 

1 Before the 25th July we had drilled and despatched six (three 
years) regiments, fully manned, uniformed and equipped, organized like 
the United States regiments. 

1,000 men in ten companies, 1 Captain, 2 Lieutenants each company. 

Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, Major, Adjutant, Quartermaster, 
Assistant Surgeon. 

Sergeant Major, Quartermaster Sergeant, Commissary Sergeant, 
Hospital Steward. 

2 Principal Musicians — 24 in band. 

Before the year 1801 closed we had sent forward — 
24 regiments Infantry, 5 light batteries, 2 companies of Sharpshoot- 
ers, of three year troops in addition to our three months militia. 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 253 

qualifications of the applicants. Colonel Browne, the 
Governor's Secretary, bore the weight of the correspond- 
ence, in which labor we all assisted with much less 
ability. 

The ignorance of all, high and low, in this matter of 
organizing, arming, equipping, drilling and disciplining 
troops for service, was, of course, very great and was 
frequently veiled, not concealed, behind a great display 
of military knowledge. 

The Governor's gayety of heart helped to sustain him; 
he was easily provoked to mirth, sometimes at the ex- 
pense of his assistants. Some of the letters written by 
me for him were complained of; others (I remember one 
in particular where I had written to the Major of a Regi- 
ment: " Your Colonel insults the Governor and oppresses 
his officers ; he thinks that he wields a two-edged sword, 
whereas in fact it is a boomerang," etc.) were returned 
as not acceptable. The Governor dubbed me the " un- 
fortunate correspondent," and enjoyed my discomfiture 
heartily, as he did the idiosyncrasies and misadventures 
of all his numerous subordinates. Like many able men 
he could more easily perform the task than lay out the 
work for others. His levee lasted from morning to night, 
and for want of abstracting one half-hour daily in which 
to assign our work, we were left alternatel}" overworked 
and under-worked, and the long hours offered to him 
were more or less wasted. And all this office work of 
the Governor's was frequently interrupted by journeys to 
Washington, official visits to camps, and to public insti- 
tutions : colleges, prisons, schools of reform, the railroad 
tunnel, almshouses, hospitals, asylums, etc., over which 



254 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

he watched with as much vigilance as if no war existed ; 
and upon most of these expeditions some members of his 
staff necessarily accompanied him. 

Whatever the Governor's success with city society, 
he was country bred ; he loved the plain people and their 
ways, and knew just how to appeal to them, however his 
language and actions might strike the more fastidious. 
A lady once told me " that the reason I did n't get along 
better with Governor Andrew was that he was a poet 
while I had n't an atom of poetry in me." The Gover- 
nor was a mute poet of the Whittier type, a New 
Englander with all the instincts and tastes and attach- 
ments of a New Englander. So while he grew daily 
and his sway over all increased, he was peculiarly the 
idol of the plain people. On his various tours to col- 
lege commencements and public institutions he would 
sit and chat and tell stories, and shake himself free 
when dull men called on him from sheer curiosity or 
self-importance. 

" How can you shake hands with those men ? They 
never saw you before ; they will never see you again ; 
they care nothing about you. The more I see of them, 
the colder I grow. ' There is where I buried my first 
wife,' pointing to a white headstone. This was almost 
the only remark made by my guide of yesterday. It is 
a waste of life to tarry among such people." But the 
Governor was interested and interesting. Now and then 
he was well entertained. One country host availed of a 
stop of an hour between trains when the Governor passed 
his way, to invite us to a " spread eagle," cooked by his 
wife herself as only a New England housewife can broil 



REIVnNISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 255 

a chicken, and with it a comforting glass of milk from 
his favorite cow, which tasted for all the world like the 
best milk punch. But in the almshouse not far off, 
where the Governor and some of his staff lodged one 
night, one of the party had cause of complaint. 

I believe that he was the first governor to attend the 
commencement of the Catholic college at Worcester. 
At Williams College the exercises were prolonged after 
dinner, and one year when we had travelled the previous 
day and night, two of us, tired to death, in spite of our 
efforts to resist, sunk into blissful repose, looking, as a 
brother officer remarked, like two owls guarding the 
stage. But, worse than that, at Harvard, in I860, 
the Governor himself, wearied by preparations to put 
down the Draft Riot just broken out, began to doze 
and nod as the Salutatory Orator was turning to ad- 
dress him, which Ritchie seeing pinched his ann, when 
he awoke with such a start that the poor orator was 
startled in his turn and faltered and stumbled in his 
compliments. 

I have no means of knowing how much prompting 
and assistance the Federal Government received from 
the Chief Magistrates of other States, but I can testify 
to the many important measures suggested and urged by 
Governor Andrew by letters, deputies and in person, 
which the government adopted, whether in consequence 
of his advocacy I know not. President Lincoln is re- 
ported to have exclaimed, upon Governor Andrew's 
leaving his room after one of his many visits : " There 
goes the Governor who gives me the most help and 
the most trouble." 



256 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

If the work which could be trusted to us subordinates 
absorbed all our time as it did for years, if the endless 
rivalries and jealousies of officers and regiments, the 
complaints of soldiers, the disappointment of rejected 
applicants, the indignation of their friends — and as 
time went on, the inevitable hardships, imprisonments, 
wounds and deaths suffered by these men who had 
eagerly sought service, — worried and afflicted us,^ if 
the long-deferred hopes made our hearts sick, what 
must have been the load of labor and anxiety and sor- 
row and responsibility upon our chief, whose words and 
acts might influence the fate of the whole country. Yet, 
while we were often moody and vexed and dejected, he 
always seemed cheery and confident. The wise but mad- 
dening slowness of the President, the apathy or arbi- 
trariness of officials at Washington, the lukewarmness 
or neghgence of our Massachusetts delegation to sup- 
ply his needs or further his views, the incapacity of 
generals, the consequent losses and defeats where he 
looked for victories, in addition to the annoyance and 
calamities before enumerated — all fretted and enraged 
and distressed, but did not dishearten, the good Gov- 
ernor. The Lord helped his unbelief ; he maintained 

1 The agitation was sometimes increased by exaggerated, preposter- 
ous reports made by credulous or dissatisfied men who purported to 
have had exceptional opportunities for learning the facts concealed 
from the pviblic. I remember such an one reporting in the Council 

Chamber the drunkenness and treachery of General , abused and 

mistrusted by the "On to Kichmond " brawlers. At the second battle 
of Bull Kun he was very drunk and around one arm he wore a hand- 
kerchief, a sign to the Rebels of his co-operation with them. Knowing 
the man to be an exasperated Ishmaelite, I listened incredulously. 
How his positive assertions affected others I know not. 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 257 

his own hope and faith and encouraged his weaker 
brethren. 

That this prolonged strain upon heart and head even- 
tually killed him, I feel as sure as if I had seen him fall 
from visible wounds. This hopefulness extended to per- 
sons as well as events. His belief in the redemption of 
the fallen was not deferred to another life. His optimism 
was wonderful. His craving for championship caused 
his occasional injustice ; when he was unjust, he was 
persistent in the defence of his proteges against the 
weight of evidence, and impugned the character of 
the adverse witnesses. There were, in my opinion, 
several flagrant instances of this partiality during the 
war, which were only palliated by the disinterested 
motives of the Governor. He was so eager to mani- 
fest his confidence in men who had betrayed their trusts 
before that he seemed sometimes to have no place in his 
heart for the firm and upright. 

" Colonel, what do you say to my appointing Z quar- 
termaster of the Regiment?" he asked on one 

occasion. " I say you shan't do it, Governor." " Well, 
why not ? " " You know why not as well as I." " We 
are none of us perfect." " No, I suppose not, but some 
more so than others. That man is a damned thief and 
you have no business to put him in charge of Uncle 
Sam's property." He yielded as to the quartermaster- 
ship, but appointed him lieutenant. The fellow's dislike 
to gunpowder, however, prompted an early resignation, 
so that the harm was confined to the discredit of the 
Governor's judgment and the brief affront to the gallant 
officers of the regiment. 

17 



258 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Some of these probationers were employed at the State 
House to our annoyance and sometimes injury. During 
one of my absences in Virginia I had a coat and a sword 
abstracted, and I regret to say that his Excellency was 
not especially moved by the circumstance. Once a 
friendly editor sent for me to say that the Governor 
had asked him to promote the appointment of Mr. X. to 
the collectorship or postmastership (I forget which), and 
he wanted to know my opinion of him. My answer was : 
" A few days ago, Mr. Greene, I said to the Governor : 
* My time is yours ; my character is my own, and unless 
you drive off some of these scallywags, I shall leave 
you. You are so concerned about the wicked, you 
have no heart for an honest man.' I do not know 
anything about this candidate, but I mistrust him and 
wouldn't vote for him if twenty Governor Andrews 
asked me." 

Although the Governor's sagacity as to men was 
sometimes questioned by us, unless he was carried away 
b}'^ his merciful impulses or captivated by some brilliant 
act of gallantry, he gauged them very well. 

As to his political sagacity, it seemed to me marvel- 
lous. He had a passionate love of his country and of its 
people ; he had but to look into his own heart to read 
theirs ; his eye was single, his whole body full of light ; 
he scouted all schemes of party, all passing popular 
impulses, and boldly advocated measures which would 
receive the ultimate and permanent approval of the 
people ; hence his death was a great relief to scheming 
and petty politicians and a great grief to unpartisan, 
patriotic citizens. 



REMINISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 259 

The Governor's pecuniary generosity, not to call it 
recklessness (for it was a deliberate subordination of 
a lesser to a greater duty and interest), was admirable ; 
he was wearing out his life fast, he was liable to be 
suddenly called away, as he well knew before he sub- 
jected himself to these extraordinary toils, and yet 
he went forward gaily, apparently without a tliought 
for the morrow. Intent upon the salvation of the 
Republic, he trusted his family to the justice and grati- 
tude of his fellow citizens. 

His farewell address to the Legislature surprised even 
his friends by its breadth of view and its boldness ; he 
laid doAvn the conditions, the only conditions, upon 
which peace and good will could be established, the 
conditions which, after ten years' floundering and theo- 
rizing, were finally adopted. He had that touch of 
nature which makes the whole world kin ; his cordial 
frankness disarmed prejudice and inspired confidence 
and friendship, so that when he died, among the men 
who first came forward to the relief of his family were 
some who had regarded his accession to office with 
dismay and contempt. The most pathetic and heartfelt 
obituary of him was in the columns of the Post on the 
day of his funeral : 

" Post, Nov. 2, 1867. 

(Editorial.) 

" The mortal remains of the late John A. Andrew 
will this day be consigned to kindred dust. The grief 
at his untimely death is universal. Not an insincere 
tear has been shed for his memory. He dies, as indeed 



260 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

all men of noble aspirations would wish to die, his 
name embalmed in the affections of a grateful, admiring, 
and sorrowing people. There is no human heart in this 
Commonwealth to-day but feels the strong pressure of 
the common affliction. It is a melancholy reflection 
that death loves to snatch such men from us in the 
midst of their usefulness, and at the height of their 
promise, but the reflection is tempered by the grateful 
recollection of their resplendent lives. At the grave of 
the deceased patriot, statesman, ex-magistrate, and citi- 
zen, the Commonwealth stands a mourner. His public 
life is incorporated with her history. His services she 
will never cease to recall with gratitude, and pubhsh 
with praise. As a patriot, no man ever thought to 
question his whole-souled sincerity ; as a statesman, he 
had manifested large abilities ; as chief magistrate, he 
possessed an executive force that continually surprised 
by its development ; and as a citizen, a man, and a 
Christian, he was faithful in all his relations, conscien- 
tiously observant of his duties, and an example for all 
men around him. He leaves what is better than great 
riches, — a name which will never be spoken save with 
admiration, gratitude and honor." 

He was in the habit of visiting New York and 
conferring with Southerners at the New York Hotel; 
had he lived, his mediation would have been impor- 
tant. 

The grave closes over most men as the waves close 
over the wake of a passing ship ; the places that knew 
them know them no more, but Governor Andrew has 



House built and occupied by Colonel Lee, at Brookline 



REAHNISCENCES OF GOVERNOR ANDREW 261 

been and will continue to be sorely missed. He 
would have comprehended our situation, he would have 
divined the measures needed and he would have so 
set forth their necessity as to have secured their adop- 
tion by the people. He was not only wise and disinter- 
ested, but he was felt to be so, and we still await his 

successor. 

Henry Lee. 

Late A. D. C. to Governor Andrew. 



SPEECH ON THE STATE HOUSE: 1895 

THE VALUE OF SENTIMENT 

[From the American Architect of March 9, 1895] 

[Colonel Lee would have protested against this title ; 
he would have thought it hardly just to him to dignify 
with the name of " Speech " remarks which he made 
with little, or no, premeditation, in addressing on short 
notice a legislative committee. He spoke, however, 
though practically impromptu, with such abundance of 
knowledge and such depth of feeling that no other effort 
of his, however labored, ever produced greater effect, 
was oftener recalled or more praised. Everyone has 
always called it a "Speech " and the word is therefore 
retained, with this explanation.] 

Mr. Fay. — I have great pleasure to introduce one 
of our most eminent and able fellow-citizens, Col. 
Henry Lee. 

Colonel Lee. — The adjectives might have been left 
out. I am sorry Governor Rice does n't know how to 
speak. I heard it said when the first library was dedi- 
cated on Boylston Street: "What a good speaker that 
young Mayor Rice is." He stood between Mr. Everett 
and Mr. Winthrop, and he held his own ; made as good 
a speech as either of them. He must have degenerated 



SPEECH ON THE STATE HOUSE 263 

since then. That is a good while ago. I rather regret 
the adjectives which were applied to me. I can say 
nothing to fulfil them. 

This is a matter of sentiment, as Governor Rice said. 
He who does not value sentiment ought not to be here. 
John Winthrop valued sentiment, or he would not have 
come here ; so did his companions. They had nothing 
but sentiment and piety to preserve them and keep 
their courage up, as had the Plymouth Fathers. It 
seems to be rather late in the day for us of Massachu- 
setts to abandon sentiment. It has money value as well 
as its moral value. When I first remember Boston, it 
was filled with sentiment. The buildings, which stood 
mostly apart with their gardens, were Provincial, some 
of them going back to Colonial times. As the city grew 
— as the town grew, for it was not a city then — as the 
town grew and room was wanted for the population, 
these old buildings came down gradually and gave way 
to blocks of buildings ; but many of them might have 
been preserved, and in looking back, we see that if the 
sentiment of the time had inspired people to their pres- 
ervation, there would have been money value in it. 
There stood the old Province House, a proud old build- 
ing, one of the remains of Colonial magnificence, built 
in 1679 by Peter Sargent, — for many years the vice- 
regal court of this Province, the abode of nine Provin- 
cial governors, one after another, from a testy old 
colonel of Marlborough's army down to Sir William 
Howe, who left it at the time of the evacuation of Bos- 
ton. That might have stood behind its oak trees on its 
terraces, a grand, stately old building, and would have 



264 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

been much handsomer in my opinion, than our new 
City -hall — I suppose Mr. Cook would have preferred 
the new City-hall; I don't. There was the house of Sir 
William Phipps, that old buccaneer, to fulfil the dreams 
of his boyhood ; and when I was a boy, it was used as 
the Boys' Asylum ; that stood down on Charter Street, 
a grand old building. There was the house of Governor 
Hutchinson and his father, which house was so fine that 
after Hutchinson was made governor he said he did n't 
want to go and live in the Province House, because he 
had a better one down at the North End ; that and the 
house of Sir Harry Frankland stood side by side in 
Garden Court Street. That house I have seen in my 
boyhood, and am one of the few now living who ever 
saw it — a most remarkable specimen of Provincial 
architecture; but pulled down ruthlessly. It would 
have been well to have preserved it. There was the 
beautiful Hancock House, well remembered ; and Gov- 
ernor Andrew did all that he could to preserve it. It 
would have been most appropriate for the official resi- 
dence of the Governor of Massachusetts, and could 
have been bought for less than you paid for an ordinary 
house on the other side of the way a few years after- 
wards; and there sentiment, if it had ruled the hour, 
would have been found in the end to have been profit- 
able. There were long lines of houses; all Pemberton 
Hill was covered with them; Peter Faneuil's house, 
the giver of the hall ; there was the house of Sir Harry 
Vane, afterwards Rev. John Cotton's house ; there was 
Governor Bellingham's house; and these with their 
grounds would have made a beautiful park for the city, 



SPEECH ON THE STATE HOUSE 265 

and we should not have had to go out five or six miles 
to find our park. It would have been well to have 
preserved them. 

There were fortifications. Some one — ex-Senator 
Blanchard — spoke here as if there had never been any 
associations in this country, no other associations but the 
Revolutionary associations. I think there have been 
a great many associations, but if you come to Revolu- 
tionary associations, there was the fortification on the 
Common — that was levelled when I was in College ; 
there were the fortifications at the South End; there 
were the fortifications on Mystic River, where after- 
wards the convent was built, and a cordon of earthworks 
from Mystic River through Somerville, Cambridge, 
Brookline, Roxbury, ending with Dorchester Heights; 
memorials of the Siege of Boston and of Washington's 
trials. And I think a beautiful parkway could have 
been made and these fortifications preserved for a very 
small amount of money, and sentiment would have been 
found to have been economy in the end. But those 
were the interesting monuments of my boyhood and 
youth. 

A monument — what is a monument ? There were 
some rich men who thought a monument ought to be 
something new; they had Mr. Cook's idea about it, 
that it ought to be something new, something in the 
present style. — I don't know whether the dome of St. 
Peter's has been changed to the modern style to attract 
people, or not. They thought this monument ought to 
be something new, something pretty fine — finer than 
the earthworks which were there. When my father 



266 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

took me over to see Bunker Hill, there were the earth- 
works; one could see the redoubt in which Prescott 
stood; see the breastwork; see where the rail fence 
ran. One could see all the way down to the Navy- 
Yard, to Moulton's Point, where the British landed. 
That was something like a monument; it was not a 
mere record which the monument afterwards was; it 
was a reminder of the scene, and that is what a monu- 
ment should be. You stood there, and all the senti- 
ment of the battle came to you. Now you go there, 
and you stand upon a hill, nicely graded and all the 
redoubt and breastwork filled up and erased and you 
have the pleasure of seeing an Egyptian obelisk ! Well, 
it is a matter of taste ; to me the old earthworks would 
have been more inspiring, more suggestive, without the 
Egyptian obelisk. Mr. Cook has a different mind. It 
is a free country ; we all have a right to our opinion. 

If you want to save the State House, you want to 
save it as a matter of sentiment: it is easier now that 
they have built that remarkably exaggerated building 
behind. 

During the war, when Governor Andrew worked 
night and day, when war as well as peace were carried 
on, the State House was sufficiently large. What they 
want a building seven times as large for, I don't know, 
unless every legislator is seven times as big as he was in 
those days. I was today guided through it; I went to 
the further end. I was told you were to be in No. 29. 
Then I came to No. 8. I could not come without a 
guide. What you want such a building for, I don't 
know; but it is built — I suppose you want it, as Mr. 



SPEECH ON THE STATE HOUSE 267 

Cook says, to advertise the State; or it was wanted 
for some other purpose. Well, I think it is a great 
pity. 

A great many years ago, my father bought a house in 
Brookline. It was an historic house ; it was, part of it, 
two hundred and thirty years old. In that house had 
been born Susannah Boylston, the mother of John 
Adams — the first John Adams. I have a letter of 
John Adams, saying that he has not been there since 
he was a youth and brought his mother on horseback 
on a pillion behind him. The carpenter told me when 
I wanted him to make some repairs for my father : "I 
tell you, Mr. Lee, the cheapest thing you can do is to 
pull that house right down." He found that there 
was some dry-rot in it, that there were some of the 
studs worn off at the bottom, and some other things; 
and that carpenter was of Mr. Cook's opinion, that a 
new house was wanted; that it would advertise my 
father better than the old house. And I did not do 
it; I kept the old house in spite of its being powder- 
posted; I have kept it, it is now forty years, and I 
can say that I never go to that house, for I don't live 
in it — one of my sons lives in it — I never go to that 
house without an active sensation of pleasure. Why? 
Well, when you go abroad, what do you go to see? 
Do you go to see the new houses in London ? Do you 
go to see the new Law Courts ? Do you go to see that 
griffin that they put up where Temple Bar stood ? No, 
you go at once, the minute you can dust your clothes, 
out you go to see Westminster Abbey. I have no doubt 
there is rot in Westminster Abbey. I have no doubt 



268 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

some stones have crumbled, and I think it would adver- 
tise London if they built a new one. But what should 
you think when you came to London and asked for 
Westminster Abbey, if they should say, "Well, you 
can't see the Abbey, but you can see a model of the 
Abbey ; it was thought in the way and that we ought to 
have something new, something to advertise London, 
and we have taken down the Abbey." 

Now, is it healthy ? Perhaps that is one reason they 
took it down; took it down because it was too old and 
too much dry-rot in it, and they wanted something 
new, something up to the times, Mr. Cook. And the 
Tower, — " Well, yes, you can see the Tower, but who 
wants to go and see the Tower?" Why, you do, the 
American, who is going to pull down the State House. 
You go abroad on purpose to see the Temple, the 
Tower, and the Abbey, and all the antiquities that you 
can find in London, not looking at anything else. 

Then some say this State House is only a hundred 
years old. Governor Long found that out last year; 
only a hundred years old! Well, I have seen the 
Abbey and 1 have seen the Temples of Paestum, and 
Augustus Caesar stood and looked at them and knew 
no more about who built them than I do ; but his feel- 
ing of antiquity and association was just the same as 
mine when looking at the Abbey. 

The first visit I made to Plymouth I asked to see 
Plymouth Rock. I walked around and could not see 
anything. I asked a maritime man: "Where is Ply- 
mouth Rock?" He brought me to the end of Hedge's 
wharf; I saw a stone, a pebble about as large as a 



SPEECH ON THE STATE HOUSE 269 

paving-stone. Spitting on it, he said : " Why, this was 
Plymouth Rock; that is what they tell me." Well, 
this was Plymouth Rock, sunk in the dirt. Above it 
was Cole's Hill. There were buried in the graves that 
were made smooth over the dead lest the Indians should 
discover their losses, those who perished the first winter, 
half the little shivering band of Pilgrims. Had they 
preserved them? Not at all. The field was full of 
burdocks and thistles and dead cats, and other articles 
of that kind. Had not been preserved, no ! They went 
— two or three miles — out of Plymouth and put up a 
monument; thought they were doing the right thing. 
The rock they had blown up — blown up the rock and 
carried it up to Pilgrim Hill! Why? Well, to have 
it "more convenient." And that was their sentiment. 
My sentiment was to leave the rock where it was ; and it 
is so now. They have put it back ; they have thought 
better of it. They have got over Mr. Cook's state of 
mind and gone back to the old, the more antique. And 
I suppose they have repented of their far-off monument 
by this time; — I don't know. 

You want a reminder, if you come to the State 
House. You don't want a new building to recall that 
there was the old State House once, built by Bulfinch, 
and which had witnessed the first hundred years of the 
history of the State. It is all the history there is. 
Governor Long does n't seem to think there is any 
history. Now he has been one of the Governors : — 
there have been thirty-five governors since this build- 
ing was built, and they have all been good governors, 
and it is hardly to be supposed that there is no record, 



270 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

that we have had no history all these hundred years. 
There have been many interesting events. He said 
there had been no war, excepting the War of the Re- 
bellion. That was rather a mistake ; we had the War 
of 1812, which was a very distressing war, too; it 
robbed us of most of our property and was one that we 
were averse to. We had the victories of 1812. Up 
through the streets marched Commodore Hull and Cap- 
tain Dacres. They lived together in the Exchange 
Coffee House, and came to the State House to pay their 
respects to the Governor. There was the fight between 
the "Chesapeake " and "Shannon," — the women were 
witnessing from the dome with anxious eyes that ter- 
rible defeat. 

There were many events I remember: the coming of 
Lafayette in 1824, who was received here as he was the 
next year when he came to the laying of the corner- 
stone of the Bunker Hill Monument; that was something 
of an event. President Monroe came here in 1817 ; that 
was something of an event. There have been four or 
five presidents here since then. 

We come down to the Civil War. Why, he said, 
Governor Andrew ? — Yes, he believed there was a war 
— but he thought Governor Andrew was on the steps ; 
it was not in the State House; he was on the steps; 
he gave the flags and he took the flags on the steps. 
Well, if you should be inclined to save your father's 
house and somebody should say to you, " Why, I saw 
your father bid you good-bye in the stage-coach on the 
steps." Yes, but I saw my father in the house, too. 
There was something done in the State House in those 



SPEECH ON THE STATE HOUSE 271 

long, tearful years of agony and weariness, heart-break- 
ing disappointment and losses ; the procession of young 
men coming to offer themselves for service, saluting 
the governor, as the gladiators did the emperor, " We, 
who are about to die, salute you." 

Do you suppose there is no feeling connected with 
the rooms where the governor sat for those four years ? 
— a man of peace called upon suddenly to prepare this 
State for a fearful war, and preparing it in spite of 
ridicule, in spite of denunciation, and preparing it so 
promptly that Massachusetts was the first State — the 
first men who were sent properly equipped and armed 
for the war were the men of Massachusetts. The whole 
world wept for Lincoln's death; are there no tears for 
Andrew, who fell, after the war, as much as Lincoln? 
Lincoln was killed by an assassin, but if he had not 
been, he would soon have died from head and heart- 
weariness. Do you suppose Governor Andrew could 
have sat here those four years, night and day — for he 
was here much of the time night and day — working 
and enduring, and feeling that he had been, more or 
less, instrumental in bringing about the deaths of all 
the flower of Massachusetts, without any emotions? 
Was there no association? You have the association 
with Bunker Hill — for what? A battle of four hours. 
Has a battle of four years no association for this build- 
ing? The agony of those four years! Men haggard 
with anxiety and grief, and the mourners going about 
the streets from every house: Rachel weeping for her 
children and would not be comforted because they were 
not. Is there no association for this building, where 



272 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

the headquarters of the whole government of the time 
were? It seems to me absurd. 

I should like to read a small sentence from William 
Morris on this subject : " No man who consents to the 
destruction of an ancient building has any right to 
pretend that he cares about art; or has any excuse to 
plead in defence of his crime against civilization and 
progress save sheer brutal ignorance." 

Now I have only one word more to say. In 1870 the 
Commune in Paris pulled down the Tuileries. I was 
there the next year; I saw the desti'uction. They 
pulled down the column on the Place Vendome, of 
which they had been so proud. Now the whole of 
France is all alive with admiration for Napoleon. 
They destroyed the Hotel de Ville with its priceless 
treasures. What was it? The work of brutes. Now 
we are proposing to destroy not our Hotel de Ville, 
but our State House, and to do it deliberately in cold 
blood. If any of you should be haled up for killing 
a person, the judge will make a distinction whether 
you did it in hot blood, whether you did it under pro- 
vocation, or whether you did it in cold blood. If you 
did it in cold blood, he will hang you ; if you did it in 
hot blood, he will let you off with imprisonment for 
life. So, we are to be more brutal, more culpable than 
those brutish Parisians who destroyed their monu- 
ments ? We do it in cold blood. In this case there is 
no excuse; you are doing it in cold blood. 



THE OLD NORTH END 

Fifty years ago the "Old North End," as it was 
affectionately called, was a most attractive quarter of 
the town, — quaint, historical, romantic, — a region of 
old shops, old taverns, old dwellings, old meeting- 
houses, old ship-yards, old traditions, its antique flavor 
preserved by its isolation. The narrow streets and 
narrow alleys followed the tortuous shore or twisted 
about the former boundaries of marsh and headland, 
lined with old shops and houses, some of colonial date, 
with their many gables, their overhanging upper stories, 
their huge panelled chimneys, interspersed with aristo- 
cratic mansions of greater height and pretensions flanked 
with out-buildings and surrounded by gardens. The 
ancient Ship Tavern, or "Noah's Ark," with its walls 
seamed by the earthquake of 1663, where Sir Robert 
Carr, Charles H.'s commissioner, beat the constable 
and replied cavalierly to Governor Leverett's summons, 
carried one back to the colonial days. The mansion of 
Sir William Phips, "the fair brick house in the Green 
Lane of North Boston," of which he had dreamed while 
he tended sheep, recalled the romantic story of that 
stout-hearted, irascible adventurer, the first governor 
under the new charter. The " Two Palaverers, " rendez- 
vous of the North End Caucus, where John Hancock 
made his grandiloquent annunciation, " Burn Boston and 

18 



274 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

make John Hancock a beggar " ; the more famous Green 
Dragon, with its emblematic sign, — "Headquarters 
of the Revolution," as Daniel Webster named it, and 
early home of the Free-Masons, where treason was 
hatched, and the " Tea Party " planned by Otis and 
Molineux, Adams and Hancock, Warren and Revere, 
and the treacherous Dr. Church, and where the North 
End mechanics declared in favor of the Federal Consti- 
tution, — these, with the homes of the youthful Frank- 
lin and Warren and Revere, and of many more, patriots 
and refugees, still stood to remind one of the actors in 
our Revolutionary struggle. 

The "Old North" of the Mathers had been pulled 
down for firewood by the British soldiers, but the 
adopted Old North peered up with its revengeful cock- 
erel, a visible monument of the piety or the malignity of 
the "aggrieved brethren" of the New North (a mooted 
point with North Enders); and in Salem Street, upon 
the eastern slope of Copp's Hill, stood Christ Church, 
with its graceful steeple, where hung Paul Revere's lan- 
tern, and whose tuneful chimes were wafted through 
the Sabbath stillness of the sparsely built town, — 

Chasing all thoughts unholy 

With sounds most musical, most melancholy. 

Copp's Hill, the burial-place of the Mathers, and of 
all the generations of North Enders, high and low, still 
faced Bunker Hill, though the battery from behind 
which Clinton and Burgoyne had beheld with conster- 
nation the slaughter of British troops had been levelled. 
Clustered around the base of the hill were the old ship- 



THE OLD NORTH END 275 

yards, associated with the invincible "Old Ironsides," 
and a series of "argosies of portly sail," of earlier and 
later date, that had ploughed every sea on peaceful or 
warlike errand for two hundred years. The sound of 
the mallets and of the broad-axes was still to be heard ; 
the smell of tar regaled the senses ; you could chat with 
caulkers, riggers, and spar-makers, and other web- 
footed brethren who had worked upon these " pageants 
of the sea " ; and you could upon occasion witness the 
launch of one of these graceful, wonderful masterpieces 
of human skill. One of the most interesting localities 
was North Square, or, of old, Clark Square, with its 
ancient overhanging houses, in one of which had been 
quartered the gallant and genial Major Pitcairn, of 
Lexington memory; in another dwelt the family of 
Commodore Downes, and by its side Paul Revere had 
lived, and in his windows exhibited his patriotic trans- 
parencies. Here was the narrow alley through which 
Governor Hutchinson reached the " Revenge Church " 
by a private door opening into his pew. At the head of 
the Square had stood the Old North, and in its place 
stood the parsonage of Dr. Lathrop, the last of the big- 
wig clergy. In Moon Street, just off the Square, was 
an ancient house, once the habitation of the Reverend 
Samuel Mather, in which his brother-in-law, Governor 
Hutchinson, had taken refuge the night of his house- 
sacking ; and here in parallel Garden Court Street still 
stood the unfortunate governor's mansion, from which 
he had been driven. 

As a boy the instinct of heredity had diawn me to 
the North End, as the home of an ancestor, one of 



276 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

the founders and long a ruling elder of the " Revenge 
Church," whose tomb on Copp's Hill and sundry estates 
scattered about that neighborhood were stations in my 
pilgrimage, more especially his ample mansion in North 
Bennett Street, from which the " aggrieved brethren " 
rushed into the New North on learning that the Rev. 
Peter Thacher and his friends had stolen a march and 
were proceeding with his ordination, notwithstanding 
their protest. This old house I haunted so persistently 
as to awaken the suspicion of the then proprietor, 
who, after my profuse explanations, remained doubtful 
whether to consider me a burglar or an imbecile. 

It was in one of our rambles through this fascinat- 
ing region in the pleasant days of spring that some of 
us schoolboys found our way into a deserted house, 
whose pictorial and architectural splendor so captivated 
us as to induce repeated visits, interrupted only by our 
summer's rustication. Returning in the fall, what was 
our dismay to find our enchanted castle gone, and upon 
its site and over its garden a block of modern brick 
houses. An anxious visit of inquiry to " honest Foster," 
the silversmith, who, in his long coat, knee-breeches, 
and silver buckles, dwelt with his spinster sister in an 
impracticably low-jettied house in Ann Street, one step 
below the narrow sidewalk, and, as old-fashioned house- 
keepers believed, beat his silver to a superior whiteness, 
while he regaled us schoolboys with traditions of a past 
age, confirmed the evidence of our senses with the added 
information that the paintings and other decorations had 
been destroyed or hopelessly dispersed. 

Thirty years went by and I had almost come to the 



THE OLD NORTH END 277 

conclusion that I had been indebted to my imagination 
for the seeming facts of its sumptuousness and heraldic 
effulgence, when, upon the purchase of the Winslow 
Lewis estate, I came across two of the painted and em- 
blazoned panels, so far corroborating my recollections ; 
which, after another twenty years' interval, have been 
again revived, and this unique mansion of provincial 
Boston, with its improbable inhabitants, remanded from 
the realms of romance and dreams by the unexpected 
apparition of its last owner in the flesh, and the inspec- 
tion of various relics he has preserved. 

The Clark house (the deserted mansion) and Hutch- 
inson house formed the west side of prettily named 
Garden Court Street, a short thoroughfare running 
from the north end of North Square to Fleet Street. 
There they stood, these rival mansions, festooned with 
Virginia creeper, behind their green court-yards, placidly 
as if their inmates had never been disturbed by French 
wars, Boston mobs, or Lisbon earthquakes. 

The Hutchinson house was built by Colonel Thomas 
Hutchinson, a descendant of William Hutchinson and 
his famous wife, "that woman of ready wit and bold 
spirit," more than a match for her reverend and magis- 
terial inquisitors. He was a wealthy merchant and 
councillor, who made his native town a sharer in his 
prosperity by founding the North End Grammar School. 
His son, the future governor, was born in this house, 
which, upon the death of his father in 1739, became 
his, and here he remained while in office, the only one 
of the provincial governors who did not inhabit the 
Province House, alleging that he had a better house of 



278 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

his own, an assertion amply justified if we can believe 
Mrs. Child's account of its interior. Here he sur- 
rounded himself with his books and works of art; here 
he collected precious manuscripts and compiled his 
interesting History; and here, on the night of the 
26th August, 1765, he was sought by an infuriated 
mob, and would have been assassinated but for his 
daughter's devotion; his house was sacked, his rich 
furniture of all sorts destroyed, and his priceless manu- 
scripts scattered to the winds, some of them picked up 
and restored by his neighbor, the Rev. Dr. Eliot. 

A few years more of contention, and this courtly 
representative of an ancient and honorable family, this 
sincere lover of his country, this patient student of 
her history, this skilful man of affairs, this persuasive 
speaker, this upright and merciful judge, once so be- 
loved, unable to discern or unwilling to adopt the 
course of a wise patriot, hindered perhaps by his great 
possessions, fled from his native land and died a broken- 
hearted exile, moralizing possibly like Wolsey upon the 
consequences of ambition, and looking back fondly to 
his birthplace in sunny Garden Court Street. 

After Hutchinson's departure, the estate was confis- 
cated, and purchased for a song by Mr. William Little, 
a respectable merchant, whose family remained there 
till its downfall. General John P. Boyd, a brother 
of Mrs. Little's, was a member of the family for some 
years, a soldier of fortune who early in life had served 
the native East Indian princes with a force raised by 
himself, and brought home his pay in the concrete form 
of a cargo of saltpetre, as tradition reported, and later 



THE OLD NORTH END 279 

distinguished himself in the War of 1812. A tall, 
showy, handsome man, with his war-paint on, his red 
wig, and face of the same color artificially heightened, 
who strutted through the streets with a military swagger, 
and slightly military costume, and performed the duties 
of naval officer to the satisfaction of President Jackson. 

The Clark house was erected by the Hon. William 
Clark, — like his neighbor, a wealthy merchant and a 
councillor, — to outshine the house built by Colonel 
Hutchinson. It was a well-proportioned house, built 
of brick, of three stories in height, looking down upon 
its two-storied neighbor, an intentional oversight^ with 
a gambrel roof crowned by a balustrade. The front 
was relieved by a row of dormer windows, by a modil- 
lioned cornice, by string courses between each story, 
and by the richly carved pediment and pilasters of the 
doorway. 

Passing through the door you entered a hall of hos- 
pitable width, running from front to rear, spanned by 
an arch midway. The front hall, lighted by windows 
on either side of the door, gave access to the front 
parlors; the real hall, leading to the sitting-room and 
kitchen, was lighted by a tall, arched window over 
the stairs, up and down whose gentle grades his pony 
scrambled with the gouty Sir Harry Frankland. The 
h:ill with its balustraded staircase, the parlors and cham- 
bers with their panelled walls, their deep window-seats, 
their chimney-pieces flanked by arched and pilastered 
alcoves, — all were in the just proportion and with the 
classic details handed down from the days of good 
Queen Anne or Dutch William. So far, the house, 



280 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

within and without, was only a fine specimen of the 
mansions of wealthy citizens of the provincial period in 
and around Boston. The feature which distinguished 
it from its neighbors was the rich, elaborate, and pecu- 
liar decoration of the north parlor on the right of the 
entrance hall. 

Opposite the door was the ample fireplace with its 
classic mantel-piece, a basket of flowers and scroll-work 
in relief upon its frieze. On the right of the chimney- 
piece was an arched alcove lighted by a narrow window ; 
on the left an arched buffet with a vaulted ceiling. The 
other three walls were divided into compartments by 
fluted pilasters of the Corinthian order, which sup- 
ported the entablature with its dentilled cornice. The 
flutings and capitals of the pilasters, the dentils of the 
cornice, the vault and shelves of the buffet, were all 
heavily gilded. So far, as I said before, it was only 
a rich example of the prevalent style. The peculiar 
decoration consisted of a series of raised panels fill- 
ing these compartments, reaching from the surbase to 
the frieze, eleven in all, each embellished with a ro- 
mantic landscape painted in oil colors, the four panels 
opposite the windows being further enriched by the 
emblazoned escutcheons of the Clarks, the Salton- 
stalls, and other allied families. Beneath the surbase, 
the panels, as also those of the door, were covered with 
arabesques. The twelfth painting was a view of the 
house upon a horizontal panel over the mantel, and be- 
neath this panel, inscribed in an oval, was the mono- 
gram of the builder, W. C. At the base of the gilded 
and fluted vault of the buffet was a painted dove. The 



THE OLD NORTH EXD 281 

floor was inlaid with divers woods in multiform pat- 
terns ; in the centre, surrounded by a border, emblazoned 
in proper colors, was the escutcheon of the Clarks, with 
its three white swans. 

The mere enumeration of the details fails to give an 
idea of the impression made by this painted and gilded 
parlor, not an inch of whose surface but had been elabo- 
rated by painter, gilder, carver, or artist, to which the 
blazoner had added heraldic emblems; so that as you 
looked round these walls, the romantic ruins and castles 
seemed placed there to suggest, if not to portray, the 
old homes of a long line of ancestors, and the escutch- 
eons above to confirm the suggestion, thereby enhanc- 
ing the splendor of the present by the feudal dignity of 
an august past. 

The Hutchinson house is said to date from 1710. 
The Clark house maj'- have been built three years later, 
as the land was purchased 10 December, 1711, of Ann 
Hobby, widow, and several others, daughters and co- 
heirs of John Winsley, deceased, of Boston, for 725 pounds 
current money. If so. Councillor Clark lived for many 
years to enjoy the sumptuousness of his new house 
and the envy of his neighbors. His death in 1742, 
attributed by some to the loss of forty sail of vessels in 
the French wars, may more naturally be accounted for 
by his having reached the ripe age of seventy-two 
years. He was one of the original worshippers at 
Christ Church, although his sister Elizabeth was mar- 
ried to Cotton Mather. He was buried in his tomb 
at Copp's Hill, marked by a tablet bearing the family 
arms. 



282 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

He was seemingly a consequential man, vain of his 
wealth and of his ancestry, more anxious to rival his 
neighbor's magnificence than his public spirit. His 
family pride would have been wounded had he foreseen 
that a granddaughter should die in the almshouse, and 
more than healed had he known that among his many 
highly respectable descendants he could have reckoned 
the Duke of Argyle, and his heir, the present Marquis 
of Lome, the husband of the Princess Louise, his lineal 
descendant in the sixth generation, through his daughter 
Sarah, wife of the wealthy and enterprising Christopher 
Kilby, for a long time agent of the Province of Massa- 
chusetts Bay and generous benefactor to his native 
town. 

Soon after the death of Mr. Clark, his estate was con- 
veyed to his son-in-law. Deacon Thomas Greenough, 
for 1,400 pounds, old tenor, and was by him sold in 1756 
to Sir Charles Henry Frankland, Bart., for 1,200 pounds 
sterling. 

Sir Harry Frankland, as he was familiarly called, 
heir to an ample fortune, and, what adds to his interest 
here, a descendant, in the fourth generation, of Oliver 
Cromwell, came to this country in 1741, as Collector 
of the port of Boston, preferring that office to the Gov- 
ernorship of Massachusetts, the alternative offered him 
by George IL The story of his life and that of the lovely 
Agnes Surriage has been told in prose and verse, and 
hardly needs repeating. Upon an official visit to Marble- 
head, he was struck by the radiant beauty of a young 
girl of sixteen, maid-of-all-work at the village inn, bare- 
legged, scrubbing the floor; he inquired her name, and 



THE OLD NORTH END 283 

upon a subsequent visit, with the consent of her parents, 
conveyed her to Boston and placed her at the best school. 
Ten years later, the connection between this high official 
and his fair prot^gde causing scandal, Frankland pur- 
chased some five hundred acres of laud in Hopkinton, 
which he laid out and cultivated with taste, built a stately 
country-house and extensive farm buildings, and there 
entertained all the gay companions he could collect with 
deer and fox hunts without doors, with music and feasting 
within doors, duly attending the church of his neighbor, 
the Rev. Roger Price, late of King's Chapel, Boston, of 
which Frankland had been, from his arrival, a member. 
Called to England by the death of his uncle, whose title 
he inherited as fourth baronet, he journeyed to Lisbon, 
and there, upon All Saints' Day, 1755, on his way to 
high mass, he was engulfed by the earthquake, his horses 
killed, and he would have perished miserably but for his 
discovery and rescue by the devoted Agnes. Grateful 
and penitent, he led her to the altar, and poor Agnes 
Surriage, the barefooted maid-of-all-work of the inn at 
Marblehead, was translated into Lady Agnes Frankland. 
It was upon Sir Harry Frankland's return from Europe 
in 1756 that he became the owner of the Clark house, 
lived in it one short year, entertaining continually with 
the assistance of Thomas, his French cook, as appears by 
frequent entries in his journal; was then transferred to 
Lisbon as Consul General, and so, with the exception of 
brief visits to this country in 1759 and 1763, disappeared 
from our horizon. After his death at Bath, England, in 
1768, his widow returned here with Henry Cromwell, 
but not until she had recorded her husband's virtues 



284 MEMOIR OF COLOXEL HEXRY LEE 

upon a monument " erected by his affectionate widow, 
Agnes, Lady Frankland," — dividing her year between 
Boston and Hopkinton, exchanging civilities with tliose 
who had once rejected her, till the contest with England 
rendered all loyalists and officials unpopular. Defended 
from molestation by a guard of six soldiers, Lady Frank- 
land entered Boston about the first of June, 1775, ^^'it- 
nessed from her window in Garden Court Street the 
battle of Bunker Hill, took her part in relieving the 
sufferings of the wounded officers, and then in her turn 
disappeared with Henry Cromwell, leaving her estates in 
the hands of members of her family. She lived a few 
years with the Frankland family in England, married a 
second time in 1782, and died in 1783. 

She is described as altogether a very lovely creature, 
with a majestic gait, dark lustrous eyes, clear melodious 
voice, and a sweet smile, graceful and dignified manners, 
readily adapting herself to her rapid change of position, 
winning: the affection of her husband's well-born rela- 
tives, while she never forgot nor forsook her own humble 
kindred. 

One gets a very favorable impression of Sir Henry 
Frankland from his journal and from the transmitted 
facts of his life. He was a liberal giver, as the records 
of the King's Chapel attest, a lover of hospitahty, a warm 
friend, constantly remitting to a large circle at home 
tokens of his affectionate remembrance, living in friendly 
relations with his more Puritan neighbors in town, help- 
ful to those in the country, courteous and considerate to 
all, independent in judgment, as his comments upon the 
policy of the government manifest. The errors of his 



THE OLD NORTH END 285 

youth, for he came here as Collector at the age of twenty- 
five, he sought to repair. His natural son, Henry Crom- 
well, he brought home to be cherished by his wife, had 
him educated, and provided for him handsomely in his 
will.i Penitent for liis betrayal of the young girl who 
had trusted in him, he made her his wife, welcomed all 
her family, sailor brother included, to his hospitable 
home, treating as his own two of her sister's children ; ^ 
was a considerate, loving husband while living, and at 
his death divided his fortune between her and Henry 
Cromwell. 

A strange, eventful history, facts too improbable for 
fiction, to be told only by a poet, who should conjure up 
the thoughts that entered the mind, the feelings tliat 
agitated the heart, of this fair, sweet Agnes, as she sat 
at the window of her painted parlor in Garden Court 
Street, gazing by turns at the Old North Meeting-House 
and into the great button wood by its side, while the dio- 
rama of her life passed before her mind's eye. 

Upon Lady Frankland's death the town mansion, 
wdiich had escaped confiscation, passed by her will to her 
family, and was by them sold in 1811 for $8,000 to Mr. 
Joshua Ellis, a retired North End merchant, who resided 
there until his death. 

Upon the widening of Bell Alley in 1832, these two 

* Henry Cromwell became an officer in the Britisli navy, had a 
creditable record, and finally left it rather than fight against his native 
country. 

'- Among the interesting relics in possession of Mr. Rowland Ellis is 
a well-painted picture of two cliildren left in a panel over the mantel 
of one of the chambers when the house was sold by Isaac Surriage to 
Mr. Ellis. Circumstances tend to the belief that these are portraits of 
John and Sally IM'Clester, the two children here mentioned. 



286 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

proud mansions, long since deserted by the families 
whose importance they were erected to illustrate and 
perpetuate, objects of interest to the poet, the artist, and 
the historian, alike for their association with a seemingly 
'remote past, their antique splendor, and for the series of 
strange, romantic incidents in the lives of their successive 
occupants, were ruthlessly swept away. 



BROAD STREET RIOT 

The extracts from the "Boston Almanac," given by 
Scituate in your paper of the 21st, recall many events, 
among others the great riot in Broad Street, June 11, 
1837. It was Sunday. I was at Dr. Channing's church, 
Federal Street, that afternoon, when the fire bells rang. 
Brooks No. 11 came clattering and jingling down Frank- 
lin Street and by the church. I concluded it was one 
of the false alarms firemen were in the habit of giving 
Sunday afternoon for the amusement of getting out the 
engine. After church I walked out to Brookline to 
tea at my uncle's, and on my return, at nine o'clock, 
found a notification to appear at the armory of the 
Cadets, which I obeyed; but no one was there. The 
next morning I learned that one of the fire engines 
sluing round the corner on East Street had broken into 
an Irish funeral procession with or without malice pre- 
pense; a running fight had ensued, which culminated 
where Sea Street became Broad Street, near the head 
of India Wharf. Here some of the Irish houses had 
been despoiled because of missiles from windows, and 
the broken glass and wrecked furniture strewn in all 
directions indicated a prolonged fight. 

Mayor Eliot had been apprised of this combat, and 
with surprising promptness arrived upon the scene on 
horseback, accompanied by Colonel Henderson Inches 



288 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

of the Cadets, and other gentlemen, and supported by- 
troops hastily summoned. The Lancers, just organized, 
made their first appearance and led the force, the New 
England Guards, Captain (afterward Chief Justice) Big- 
elow, with charged bayonets, and other companies of 
the Boston Regiment following. The riot was sup- 
pressed; the Volunteer Fire Department, organized by 
Mayor Quincy some ten years before, and now infected 
with rowdyism and bumptiousness, was broken up ; the 
engines manned for the time by respectable loyal citi- 
zens, who rallied round the mayor, and whose some- 
what senile efforts were jeered at by the lusty, profane, 
irreverent ex-firemen. A new force of men who could 
be paid, as volunteers never can, was soon organized 
by the brave mayor. Thirst for blood instigated the for- 
mation of an Irish company, the Montgomery Guards, 
whose captain was one Baxter, a swarthy, bow-legged 
man, once member of the City Guards, then sergeant- 
major of the regiment. On muster day, September 12, 
as this inopportune company in Irish green wheeled 
into line about opposite to Mason Street, every other 
company in the regiment, save the New England Guards, 
the Boston Light Infantry, and Rifle Rangers, the most 
select companies, wheeled out and marched away under 
sergeants. Some of the old citizens, with a liberal creed, 
deprecated this insult, and spoke encouraging words 
to the Irishmen. I recollect seeing Mr. Harrison Gray 
Otis, one of the old Federal leaders, addressing them ; 
but the company, as it left the ground in the afternoon, 
was hooted and stoned by a mob composed chiefly of 
the members of the mutinous companies, and the Mont- 



BROAD STREET RIOT 289 

gomery Guards were intimidated from parading again. 
For two years the regiment was reduced to a battalion. 
In 1839 the offending companies, under somewhat 
altered names, hut with the same uniforms and officers, 
were allowed to reappear by the too lenient Governor 
Everett, and the regiment was reorganized with a new 
field and staff, Charles Russell Lowell colonel. 

Two more events helped to make this year memo- 
rable in the military annals of the State : June 14, the 
National Lancers, whose soldier-like conduct in the 
riot had commended them to the community, made 
their first parade. I can see them now, mustering and 
forming line on the Common, parallel and close to the 
mall, opposite Walnut Street. Their coming had been 
hailed, as the Light Horse, the only cavalry company 
for some years, had so dwindled that the governor's 
escort on Commencement Day consisted at last of Cap- 
tain Cambridge, two buglers and two troopers. The 
Lancers appeared with full ranks, under Captain 
Thomas Davis, who in the ward company days had 
commanded the First, or North End, Regiment. He 
was a florid-faced man with well-cut features, short 
body and long legs. The helmet and green uniform, 
with red facings, and the avoirdupois of the members 
of the company would have suggested heav}' dragoons, 
but they liad adopted the name and weapon of jaunty, 
wasp-waisted lancers. Louis Dennis, who had figured 
on the regimental staff and at the head of several com- 
panies ; Peter Dunbar, handsome, burly head-truckman, 
once line officer of the First regiment; Forristall, 
another heavy, handsome, head-truckman; Samuel K. 

19 



290 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Bayley, horse auctioneer, equally stout and tall ; Gard- 
ner Greenleaf, mason; Cummings, blacksmith; Heath, 
carriage-builder; Guild, dentist, with Punchinello face; 
Braman of the Swimming School; Jepson, once hand- 
some coachman of Governor Gore, and many more 
whom I cannot name, would have turned the scale at 
not less than two hundred pounds. They spent the 
day riding through the town, being reviewed by Gov- 
ernor Everett near the great elm, and there was issued 
a lithograph depicting the scene. 

The last parade was October 30, the occasion the 
reception of Black Hawk, Keokuk, the Prophet, and 
thirty or forty chiefs of the Sioux and the Sacs and 
Foxes. The governor received them in the State House 
and bestowed on them his eloquence and presents to 
suit their tastes. We Cadets guarded the entrance to 
the State House, and in the afternoon escorted the 
governor and his guests to a corner of the Common 
near Park Street and the Brewer fountain, guarded by 
the Lancers. The savages danced a war dance, and 
we were obliged to lie down that the people might see 
the antics of the Indians, an unwelcome attitude on 
a cold October afternoon. Senex 



THE SHAW MEMORIAL 

[In the autumn of 1865 Colonel Lee was one of those 
who started the movement for erecting, in memory of 
Colonel Robert G. Shaw, that monument which now 
stands opposite to the State House in Boston. The 
sculptor stipulated for two 3-ears, and took twelve. 
When at last, after this weary and anxious waiting, 
the day for the unveiling and presentation came. 
Colonel Lee, whose feelings had been deeply engaged 
in the business, had the gratification of finding tlie 
ceremonial to be " perfect." His own part therein, 
which fell to him as Chairman of the Committee, con- 
sisted in a brief address^ to the Governor at the 
moment of the unveiling, and later in the reading of 
the following Report:] 

You are too partial in calling me chairman of the 
committee. I wish the chairman, John M. Forbes, 
were here, — a man identified ^vith Governor Andrew 
from the cold, chilly morning of preparation to the last 
rcAdew of the army in Washington. I say deliberately 
that there was no citizen of the Commonwealth who 
rendered more varied, more continuous, more valuable 
service during the war than John M. Forbes. To the 
State " his purse, his person, his extremest means lay 

1 Not preserved. 



292 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

all unlocked to her occasions." Unfortunately, old age 
has arrested him and prevented him from taking his 
place as chairman this morning. 

Friends, more than twenty years ago the subscribers 
appointed a committee with full powers to procure 
a fitting testimonial to Col. Robert G. Shaw and his 
brave black soldiers. That committee has completed 
its task. It has invited the subscribers, the family 
and friends of the hero, with the remnant of his 
followers, some of his old comrades in arms, and all 
others interested, to listen to its final report, to look 
upon the memorial they have procured, to discharge 
the committee from further labors, and, if so minded, 
to crown them with approbation. 

We ask your Excellency to preside on this occasion as 
the chief magistrate of the Commonwealth, and espe- 
cially as the successor to our great " war governor," — 
the governor who was the first to prepare for war, 
the first to prepare for peace, the first to urge the 
policy of emancipation as a war measure, the first to 
insist upon the riglit and duty of the colored men to 
bear arms, feeling that not only the liberties of the 
colored men, but the destinies of the countiy itself were 
involved in this question. When, after two years' de- 
lay, the official sanction was granted he hastened to 
organize regiments, to watch over them and contend 
for their rights, — promised and withheld. 

" The monument," said Governor Andrew in his call for 
subscriptions, " is intended not only to mark the public 
gratitude to the fallen hero, who at a critical moment 
assumed a perilous responsibility, but also to commemo- 



THE SHAW MEMORIAL 293 

rate that great event wherein lie was a leader, by which 
the title of colored men as citizen soldiers was fixed 
beyond recall." 

Time is wanting to detail the labors, anxieties, and 
disappointments, the weary delays encountered, the an- 
tipathy and incredulity of the army and the public at 
the employment of colored men as soldiers even after 
the bloody assault on Fort Wagner; and the final 
triumph of the governor only after a long legal 
struggle, and after he and his colored soldiers had 
passed through great anxiety and misery. 

" I was opposed on nearly every side when I first 
favored the raising of colored regiments," said President 
Lincoln to General Grant ; and no one can appreciate 
the heroism of Colonel Shaw and his officers and soldiers 
without adding to the savage threats of the enemy the 
disapprobation of friends, the antipathy of the army, 
the sneers of the multitude here, without reckoning the 
fire in the rear as well as the fire in front. One 
must have the highest form of courage not to shrink 
from such dismaying solitude. 

As to the fallen hero who " had put on the crown of 
martyrdom," the governor had selected him, after delib- 
eration, from a family consecrated to patriotism; had 
admired his heroism and was heartsick at his loss. 

To express the universal grief at that loss and the ap- 
preciation of the great event in which he was a leader, 
this monument has been erected. 

The State, through Governor Long, generously offered 
to the committee an admirable site for the monument, 
but upon examination this was declined lest the State 



294 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

House grounds should be disfigured. In this emer- 
gency the city came to our rescue, and not only fur- 
nished the ground, but made a liberal contribution of the 
terrace and framework of the monument. We there- 
fore must turn to you, Mr. Mayor, and transfer to your 
Honor this precious memorial. 

A generation has passed since this great work was 
contemplated. It is over twenty years since it was en- 
trusted to the committee which I represent, and twelve 
years since it was confided to the sculptor, Mr. St. 
Gaudens. Two years was the time allotted for its com- 
pletion. These two years have lengthened into twelve, 
a period of great anxiety for the committee lest they 
should not survive to accomplish their task, or, what was 
more important, lest the sculptor should be taken away, 
with his work unfinished. Those twelve years have 
been improved by the artist, whose inexorable conscience 
compelled him to prolong his labors at all hazards until 
his ideal should be realized. 

Your Honor has witnessed the unveiling of the monu- 
ment, and will, I am sure, congratulate us that, thanks 
to the sculptor, we have builded better than we knew. 

No sweeter praise could be craved by any artist than 
the eulogy pronounced upon his work by the mother of 
the hero : 

" You have immortalized my native city, you liave 
immortalized my dear son, you have immortalized 
yourself." 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 

BORN IN LONDON, NOVEMBER 27, 1809; DIED IN 
LONDON, JANUARY 16, 1893 

[Reprinted by kind permission of the proprietors of the " Atlantic 
Monthly "] 

Mrs. Kemble, whose death in London has been lately 
announced, had many friends of long standing in Boston, 
one of whom offers this memorial. 

Ever since Fanny Kemble burst upon the world, at 
the age of twenty, she has been an object of interest to 
the English race in both hemispheres. After a child- 
hood of varied freedom and discipline, tending rather to 
develop than to regulate her capacities, this young girl 
M'as suddenly summoned to the stage, to rescue her 
father from impending ruin. It was a hazardous ven- 
ture. The success was immediate and marvelous. A 
succes d'estime naturally awaited the advent of another 
Kemble; but the public, drawn to Covent Garden by 
mingled motives of curiosity to see a fresh debutante^ of 
regard for the family, and of sympathy for their ship- 
wrecked fortunes, were taken by storm, and continued 
to crowd the theatre for one hundred and twenty nights 
to weep over the woes of Juliet. 

]Mrs. Kemble lacked the stature and perfect symmetry 
of !Mrs. Siddons, but she had the noble head, the efful- 
gent eyes, the sensitive mouth and flexible nostrils, the 
musical voice, the dignified and graceful gestures, which 



296 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

distinguished her aunt; and, in addition, the sense of 
humor, the mobile temperament quick as flame, the 
poetic sensibility, which characterized her mother. 
Three weeks was the ostensible term of preparation, the 
interval between her summons and her appearance ; as to 
the rest, the poetry to feel and the dramatic faculty to 
represent, she had imbibed or inherited. So endowed, 
she soared at once to heights reached by others only 
after years of toil, substituting feeling for simulation, 
spontaneous action for studied gesture and movements, 
the intuition of poetic and dramatic genius for the train- 
ing of talent ; and this abandonment of herself to inspira- 
tion, " letting her heart go, while she kept her head," 
gave a vividness and pathos to her personations never 
equaled on the English stage in our day. 

Mrs. Kemble, in her Records, dwells much upon her 
ignorance of the details of her profession, and quotes 
with glee Mr. Macready's remark that she did not know 
the elements of it; but the readers of the life of that 
irritable actor will remember that he praises no con- 
temporary, and her own criticisms must be taken with 
allowance for her extreme frankness and her exalted stan- 
dard. That she fully comprehended the requirements 
of her calling, and devoted herself to it industriously, 
her letters manifest. That she might have arrived at 
greater perfection and uniformity, that she would have 
become more independent of her passing moods, of her 
fondness or aversion for her part, had she liked and pur- 
sued lier profession, no one familiar with the art of act- 
ing as perfected on the French stage can doubt. But, 
as a critic truly says, " the greatest artist is she who is 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 297 

greatest in the highest reaches of her art, even although 
she may lack the qualities necessary for the adequate 
execution of some minor details ; " and no one who 
witnessed Mrs. Kemble's personations of Mrs. Beverle}-, 
Belvidera, Bianca, Julia, Portia, Katharine, Ophelia, 
Juliet, has ever had her image effaced from his mind's 
eye, or has ever enjoyed a glimpse of her successor. 

That she exercised this fascination, that she electrified 
audiences in the Old and New World by her acting, 
rests not upon the assertion of any one admirer ; it is 
recorded in the annals of the time. That she numbered 
among her admirers not only the thoughtless many, but 
the judicious few, — Sir Walter Scott, Sir Thomas Law- 
rence, Rogers, Campbell, Sterling, Christopher North, 
Barry Cornwall, and their kindred on this side of the 
Atlantic ; that she achieved two fortunes, winning inde- 
pendence for herself and for those she loved, are histor- 
ical facts. Sterling, Avho saw her when she first appeared, 
says : " She was never taught to act at all ; and though 
there are many faults in her performance of Juliet, there 
is more power than in any female playing I ever saw, ex- 
cept Pasta's Medea." Sir Walter Scott said that she 
had great energy mingled with and chastened by correct 
taste, and that, for his part, he had seen nothing so good 
since Mts. Siddons. Charles Greville, skeptical at first, 
is converted. " ' The Hunchback,' very good and a great 
success. Miss Fanny Kemble acted really well ; for the 
first time, in my opinion, great acting. I have never 
seen anything since Mrs. Siddons (and perhaps Miss 
O'Neill) so good." Christopher North is most enthusi- 
astic : " Her attitudes, her whole personal demeanor, are 



298 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

beautiful. They are uniformly appropriate to the char- 
acter and the situation, and in exquisite appropriateness 
lies beauty. But not only are Miss Kemble's attitudes, 
her appearance, her apparition, beautiful ; they are also 
classical. Miss Kemble is a girl of genius." Of her first 
night the "New Monthly Magazine" writes: " The looks 
of eveiy spectator conveyed that he was electrified by 
the influence of new-tried genius, and was collecting 
emotions in silence, as he watched its development, to 
swell its triumph with fresh acclamations. For our 
part, the illusion that she was Shakespeare's own Juliet 
came so speedily upon us as to suspend the power of 
specific criticism." 

It is sixty years the 16th April, 1893, since Fanny 
Kemble made her d^but at the Tremont Theatre, in 
Boston, and the glamor of her apparition has not yet 
vanished. The ecstasy of that season comes back at the 
sound of her name. I scarcely ever go by the Tremont 
House -without gazing once more at the windows of 
her room, in the superstitious hope that her radiant face 
may shine forth. It seems but yesterday that we were 
all, youths and maidens, hanging round Tremont Place to 
see her mount Niagara, — a horse I rode thenceforth, on 
holidays and in vacations, because she had been upon his 
back, — or scouring the country to catch a glimpse of 
her as she galloped past. Every young girl, who could, 
sported Fanny Kemble curls. To be thouglit to look like 
Fanny Kemble was their aspiration. I remember mak- 
ing a long pilgrimage on horseback to gaze upon a 
young lady whose attraction was a fancied resemblance 
to Fanny Kemble ; and only a few years ago I visited a 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 299 

matron, living near the Hudson River, who, in her youth, 
had been the more admired because she resembled Fanny 
Kemble ; and she had not forgotten it. One young girl, 
more fortunate and more venturesome than her fellows, 
while hanging her daily offering of flowers upon the 
handle of the actress's door, was heaixl, captured and 
caressed, and accepted as a friend from that briglit day. 

As for us Harvard students, we all went mad. As 
long as funds held out, there was a procession of us 
hastening breathless over the road to Boston, as the 
evening shades came on ; then a waiting in the narrow 
entrance alley, packed like sardines in a box, until at 
last we were borne along, with peril to flesh and rai- 
ment, into the pit, where we sat on the unjbacked 
benches, absorbed, scarce knowing wlien and where we 
were, and regardless of our sometimes sans-culotte 
condition, 

Charles Kemble opened with Hamlet, Ophelia being 
played by INlrs. Barrett, whom Mrs. Kemble pronounced 
"perfectly beautiful, with eyes and brow of an angel, a 
mouth chiseled like a Grecian piece of sculpture, with an 
expression of infinite refinement ; fair round arms and 
hands, a beautifully moulded foot, and a figure that 
seemed to me perfectly proportioned. Altogether, I 
never saw a fairer woman ; it was delightful to look at 
her." The next night Miss Kemble made her debut in 
Bianca; and we went out, transfixed with horror and 
fascination, into uttermost darkness, as when one passes 
an arc light on the road. We were all stricken, and 
only counted the hours and the cash which would bring 
us back asrain. 



300 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

I remember one niglit when, as Belvidera, shrieking, 
stares at her husband's ghost, I was sitting in front, in 
her line of vision, and I cowered and shrank from her 
terrible gaze. How we all wept with her as Mrs. 
Beverley over the frenzied despair of her gamester hus- 
band ! — with this difference, that her tears were staining 
her silk dress, while ours were mopped by our handkef- 
chiefs. How we all enjoyed her shrewish outbursts and 
humble penitence as Katharine, and her father's assumed 
violence and real good breeding as Petruchio ! — a de- 
lightful performance, vainly essayed by actors since, in 
the fond belief of my friend John Gilbert and myself. 
Who has played Portia with such sweet dignity; who 
has so filled out the part of the whole-hearted Bea- 
trice, with her pride of maidenhood, until surprised 
into love by the sincere warmth of Benedick's confes- 
sion ; and who ever personated that brave gallant as did 
Charles Kemble ? 

" Oh for something of the fire, the undying youthful- 
ness of spirit, now so rare, the fine courtesy of bearing, 
which made the acting, with actors of this type, so 
delightful ! " Helen Faucit thus eulogizes Charles 
Kemble, and his masterpiece, Mercutio, and Fanny 
Kemble's Juliet, which held Covent Garden for one 
hundred and twenty nights, and made lovers of all the 
youth of London ! " We were all of us in love with 
you, and had your portrait by Lawrence in our rooms." 
So said Thackeray to Fanny Kemble twenty years after- 
wards. 

Of all her parts, Julia, ^vritten for her by Sheridan 
Knowles, was the most perfect; and the scene with 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 301 

Clifford, when, love and fortune lost, he comes, as 
secretary to Lord Rochdale, bearing a message, was 
so affecting as to call forth from Rachel, " C'est bien, 
fort bien ; " and we certainly shed abundant tears over 
her desperate misery. In a conversation with JVIrs. 
Kemble one day, when each enumerated the great act- 
ors we had seen here and abroad, I said: " There is one 
you have omitted." " Myself, I presume. I never was 
a good actress." " Were n't you ? Did n't you play 
Julia well?" " I did." 

Upon the authority of her mother, who was her most 
solicitous and most competent critic, it seems that the 
lack of preparation for the stage caused Mrs, Kemble's 
acting to be unequal, though, so far as my observation 
went, it was, as an Irishman might say, never worse, but 
sometimes better, actually inspired. As the painter 
who was asked with what he mixed his paints answered, 
" With brains," so could Fanny Kemble have accounted 
for her unrivaled power by saying that she threw her 
whole soul into her work. 

Fanny Kemble's career as an actress came to a sudden 
close in June, 1834, by her marriage to Mr. Pierce But- 
ler, of Philadelphia. 

She has expressed her thankfulness that she was 
removed from the stage before its excitement became 
necessary to her. The vacuity of Mrs. Siddons's last 
years, her apparent deadness and indifference to every- 
thing, she attributed to the withering and drying influ- 
ence of the over-stimulating atmosphere of emotion, 
excitement and admiration in which her aunt had 
passed her life ; and she believed that her own power 



302 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

of endurance of the sorrow of her later life was 
lessened by the early excitement and the prolonged 
exercise of the capacity for superficial emotion upon 
the stage. 

There can be no doubt that in Mrs. Kemble's case, 
where the emotion excited was more than superficial, 
the nerves were weakened, the atmosphere was too 
stimulating ; but what alternative would have protected 
her from the rash nature which her mother gave her, 
and which the home education had developed? And 
as to the vacuity and indifference in the lives of Mrs. 
Siddons and of Mrs. Kemble's father, they had neither her 
brains, her temperament, nor her education. Moreover, 
I feel quite sure that, had she turned governess, or had 
she remained in her father's house, the dramatic and 
theatrical instinct derived from her progenitors, and 
which impelled her sister Adelaide upon the stage, 
would have drawn her thither, or, if suppressed, would 
have left her dissatisfied as not having fulfilled her 
mission. Mrs. Kemble's objections to the profession 
would hardly apply to the actors of comedy, whose work 
is rather intellectual than emotional ; nor would she ex- 
tend them to French or Italian actors, whose demonstra- 
tions, on and off the stage, are not acted, dramatic as 
they are, but perfectly natural. 

In connection with this subject, I must give an in- 
stance of her prompt rejection of undeserved praise, and 
hearty championship of her humbler professional asso- 
ciates. Hearing a sermon which condemned the pro- 
fession of actors, and reflected upon their moral character 
as a body, with the notable exception of the Kemble 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 303 

family, she wrote a spirited reply, disclaiming any 
moral superiority of her own family over the average, 
and testifying to the respectability and worth of many 
humble members of her profession who never had been 
and never would be cheered by public notice, while her 
family were distinguished from those faithful unre- 
warded laborers only by the favor of the public ; adding 
that her objections to the profession were based upon its 
unwholesomeness, not upon its looseness of morals. 

After a few years of married life, passed partly in 
America, and partly, to her great relief, in England, 
Mrs. Kemble returned to her native land, and, after 
a refreshing year in Italy as guest of her sister, resumed 
her profession. 

It would be impossible to exaggerate the forlornness 
of her situation at this time. Separated from her 
children by the ocean, wider then than now, her com- 
munication with them infrequent and indirect, heart- 
sick with sorrow and anxiety, no longer young, her 
bloom gone, her prestige gone, incompetent to bargain 
with shrewd provincial managers, often sick from the 
exposure incident to this nomad life, she toiled on for 
a scant pittance, earned by the abhorred simulation of 
griefs akin to those gnawing at her heart. 

" The step I am about to take," she writes, " is so 
painful to me that all petty annoyances and minor vexa- 
tions lose their poignancy in the contemplation of it. 
My strength is much impaired, my nerves terribly 
shattered. I am now so little able to resist the slisrht- 
est appeal to my feelings that, at the play, the mere 
sound of human voices simulating distress has shaken 



304 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

and affected me to a strange degree. Judge how ill 
prepared I am to fulfill the task I am about to under- 
take. But it is an immense thing for me to be still able 
to work at all, and to keep myself from helpless depend- 
ence upon any one." " The whole value and meaning 
of life, to me, lies in the single sense of conscience, — 
duty." True to her principles, rather than request or 
accept a share of the fortune bestowed, in her days 
of prosperity, upon her father, she struggled on in this 
dismal drudgery ; buoyed up by her faith, cultivating 
an interest in passing events in society, politics, and 
literature, communing with nature, and cheered by the 
loyalty of old friends. 

This pilgrimage lasted for a year and a half, when at 
last, her father retiring from the field, she felt at liberty 
to give readings, which were less distasteful to her than 
acting; in fact, such was her enthusiasm for Shake- 
speare, they were sometimes enjoyed by her as well 
as by her audience. While the remnant who witnessed 
Fanny Kemble's acting in Boston might be packed into 
a box, a pitful of those who enjoyed her readings here 
survive. Whatever criticisms have been made upon her 
acting, there has been but one verdict as to her read- 
ings. In these were made manifest not only her dra- 
matic inheritance, the range and quality of her voice, 
the grace of her gestures, the mobility and eloquence of 
her face, but also the underlying foundation of her 
power as an actress and reader, her comprehensive in- 
telligence and her deep feeling. She approached her 
work with humble reverence for and appreciation of her 
divinity, Shakespeare, whose priestess she was; and 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 305 

thus dedicated, she was transfigured in her imagination 
and to the eyes of the spectators. 

As her friend, jealous of her welcome, I have often 
looked around as she entered and announced her read- 
ing, knowing that some present were gazing skeptically 
at the stout, middle-aged woman who was to present 
to them the lovelorn Juliet, the crazed Oplielia, the 
innocent Miranda. My fears were soon dissipated, for, 
as the play proceeded, not only were the voices clearly 
and finely distinguished, but the expression of each was 
miraculously infused, so that she really looked, suc- 
cessively, like Prospero, Miranda, or ArieL I must 
make an exception of Cahban, Bottom, Falstaff, Sir 
Toby, and Dogberry ; her attempts to personate these 
were, naturally enough, disagreeable and unsuccessful. 

While her readings, for which she made thorough 
preparation, were uniformly excellent, I remember one 
remarkable instance of inspiration. It was near the 
close of her last season in Boston — about 1867, perhaps 
— tiiat I went with two companions to hear her read 
Richard III. From her entrance-soliloquy to the shriek- 
ing of the ghosts over the sleeping Richard, her read- 
ing was so inspired that we were all electrified ; and 
the next morning I wrote : " What was the matter with 
you last night ? You never read so in your life. Com- 
pared with your usual readings, it was flpng instead of 
walking. I don't know what, but something extraordi- 
nary must have happened." In reply, she said : " I 
waive your compliments, but you must have noticed 
that I tripped twice in my dialogue, — a rare occur- 
rence ; but the fact was that I was beside myself, for 

20 



306 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

just as I was going to my reading I received a note 
from the executor of my cousin, Mrs. George Combe 
(Cecilia Siddons), announcing tliat she had left me by 
her will five family pictures, — one of my grandmother, 
a venerable lady, whom I am said to resemble; and 
what was more, a pair of gloves that once were Shake- 
speare's." This unexpected revelation confirmed my 
belief in the justice of my observation. I had seen the 
flame ; now I had discovered the fuel. 

The great success of the readings, especially in 
America, placed Mrs. Kemble in comfort, — save when, 
in behalf of herself, or more frequently of her children, 
she was guilty of extravagance, — and enabled her 
thenceforth to spend her time alternately in England 
and America, with a summer visit to Switzerland. 

Emerson has said that poets put all their poetry into 
their verses, and leave none in their lives. Actors as 
well as authors are apt to disappoint one who is led by 
the art to interest himself in the artist. Nine times out 
of ten one finds a commonplace person who has this one 
talent, and there an end ; that his delineations are mere 
surface work, divined from the outside, with no pene- 
tration into or conception of the full scope of the char- 
acter he is representing; sunflower costumes, artistic 
scenery, calcium lights, do the rest. jNIrs. Kemble says : 
" Few things have ever puzzled me more than the 
fact of people liking me because I pretended to be a 
pack of Juliets and Belvideras, and creatures who were 
not me." Still she recognizes the fact that the popular 
theatrical heroine of the day always is the realization of 
their ideal to the youth, male and female, of her time. 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 307 

She certainly was so, and in her case her admirers were 
not disappointed. 

Her great nature was manifested in her acting and 
reading as in lier writing, and still more in her being. 
"She has far more ability than she can display on 
the stage," said Sterling. " The Kembles are really a 
wonderful race. Who that has ever seen Fanny on the 
stage, or heard her read, or perused her plays and poems 
and journals, or her philosophical analyses of Shake- 
speare's characters, can deny her genius?" says Julian 
Young, a lifelong friend, only child of her old friend, 
the eminent actor Charles Young. " Finished the read- 
ing of ±drs. Butler's play, — full of power, poetry, and 
pathos. She is one of the most remarkable women 
i)f the present day." So spoke the jealous, irritable, but 
really high-minded JNIacready, who tickled or stung INIrs. 
Kemble by affirming that she was ignorant of the rudi- 
ments of her profession. 

Fanny Kemble had doubted whether she ought to 
marry, and perhaps she was correct. I cannot picture 
to myself a union mutually satisfactory. An experi- 
enced gardener experiments upon foreign plants with 
watchful distrust, for he has learned that their acclima- 
tion is not a simple question of heat or cold, of wet 
or dry, but an intricate problem; nor is he beguiled 
by seeming success until time has been given to exhaust 
their imported vitality, any more than the experienced 
physician is encouraged by his patient's seeming im- 
provement until the fever has run its course. So an 
experienced social philosopher looks with misgivings 
upon the future of the young girl who has linked her 



308 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

fortunes to a foreigner, unaware how much married 
happiness is buttressed by the support of family and 
friends, and by the environment of famihar scenes 
and associations. Fanny Kemble was pecuharly un- 
fitted for a transatlantic alliance. She was intensely 
attached to her own soil, with its history and its 
poetry, as also with its social structure and customs. 
She had been brought up from childhood among bright 
artistic and literary people. Besides her own family 
circle, her brother John's classmates and ci-onies, who 
frequented her father's house, included Arthur Hallam, 
Alfred Tennyson and his brother, Frederick ]\Iaurice, 
John Sterhng, Richard Trench, William Donne, the 
Romillys, the ]\Ialkins, Edward Fitzgerald, William 
Thackeray, Richard Monckton Milnes ; and after her 
brilliant d^but she came into familiar intercourse with 
all that English society could offer for her entertain- 
ment. 

While she rather eschewed general society, unless 
there was dancing, to which she was addicted, she 
was very dependent upon this social and literary re- 
freshment. She had been from childhood a great reader 
and a great thinker. She had been in the habit of 
writing poetry and prose from early girlhood. One 
of her plays, written when she was seventeen, was 
brought out with success, even Macready declaring 
it " full of power, poetry, and pathos." " A very 
noble creature indeed. Somewhat inelastic, unpliant 
to the age, attached to the old modes of thought and 
conventions, but noble in qualities and defects." So 
comments Mrs. Browning upon Mrs. Kemble ; and 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 309 

this inelasticity made it impossible for her to abandon 
old, and adopt new and, to her, strange conventions. 

Just fancy the hunger and thirst of a human being 
so constituted and so habituated, in an American city, 
in the former half of this century, where the best 
substitutes for her lost companions, the clergymen 
and other professional men, were too busy and too 
tired to circulate ; the few men of leisure and business 
men were too uneducated to furnish any nourishment ; 
and the women, unlike her regretted British sisters, 
were disabled by poor health, engrossed in home cares 
and local interests, and incapacitated by want of educa- 
tion. " You can form no idea," she writes, " of the 
intellectual dearth and drought in which I am existing 
at present." " All the persons whom I should like 
to cultivate are professionally engaged without inter- 
mission, and they have no time, and, it seems, but 
little taste, for social enjoyment." " No one that I 
belong to takes the slightest interest in literary pur- 
suits." This dearth, or utter solitude in her country 
home, were the possible alternatives. Then there was 
the climate, which debilitated her in summer and dis- 
mayed her in winter, and which throughout the year 
combined with the dust and mud to deprive her of 
that exercise on foot and in the saddle which she 
could not do without. 

She gives a laughable account of her kindly but 
abortive attempts, as the lady of Butler Place, to school 
the children who were already schooled, to fete the 
laborers on the Fourth of July with wine and beer 
which they would not touch, to visit the poor who did 



310 MEMOIR OF COLOXEL HENRY LEE 

not exist ; and we can see her bustling about with 
her keys, measuring out supplies for the household, 
tormenting herself with details, disaffecting her servants 
with foreign customs, and crusading generally, with 
great fatigue and little or no avail. 

When she learned that her husband's inheritance 
consisted chiefly of slaves and plantations, her heart 
was deeply touched with pity and a sense of responsi- 
bility to the enslaved laborers, and she Avrote a "long 
and vehement treatise against negro slavery," which she 
was deterred from publishing for fear of public in- 
dignation. Looking back upon her life at this time, 
Mrs. Kemble says : " The ideas and expectations 
with which I then entered upon my Northern country 
life, near Philadelphia, were impossible of fulfillment, 
and simply ridiculous under the circumstances." 
"Those with which I contemplated an existence on 
our Southern estate were not only ridiculously im- 
possible, but would speedily have found their only result 
in the ruin, danger, and very probably death of all con- 
cerned. I am now able to understand and appreciate 
what I had then not the remotest suspicion of, — the 
amazement and dismay, the terror and disgust, with 
which such theories must have filled every member 
of the American family with which my marriage had 
connected me ; I must have appeared to them nothing 
but a mischievous madwoman." " It is a sti-ange coun- 
try and a strange people ; and though I have dear and 
good friends among them, I still feel a stmnger here, 
and fear I shall continue to do so until I die, which God 
grant I may do at home ! — that is, in England." 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 311 

I have often heard Mrs. Kemble lament that Ameri- 
cans and English should continue to regard themselves 
as one people, despite the essential differences wrought 
by the influence of two hundred years' separation. She 
thought that this mistaken notion of identity led to 
unreasonable expectations, and consequent misunder- 
standings and disappointments ; and her position was, I 
think, well taken, — that we should better our relations 
by respecting one another's strangeness. In her case, 
the incompatibilities were both generic and individual ; 
her marriage was entered upon rashly and unwisely. 
And, paradoxical as it may seem, this marriage to 
an American, while it did give her, as it were, two 
homes, and friends in both hemispheres, ended by ren- 
dering her homeless ; for, on whichever side of the ocean 
she sojourned, she was homesick for the other. If in 
England, she yearned for her children, and, next to 
them, for the Sedgwicks ; if in America, she was anxious 
about her family, longed for the sight of the friends of 
her youtli, and felt herself an exile from her beloved 
native land. 

" Oh, vainest quest of that torment, the love for the 
absent I " she writes. " This being linked by in\dsible 
chains to the remote ends of the earth, and constantly 
feeling the strain of the distance upon one's heart ; this 
sort of death in life, for you are all so far away that you 
are almost as had as dead to me. I really feel sometimes 
as if I could make up my mind to turn my thoughts 
once and for all away from you, as from the very dead, 
and never more, by this disjointed communion, revive, in 
all its acuteness, the bitter sense of loss and separation." 



812 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

While she did not feel at home in America, and while 
this lack of complete sympathy increased as she grew 
older and youthful associations dearer, yet she cherished 
a warm affection for her adopted country, especially for 
New England, which she believed would be "the no- 
blest country in the world in a little while ; " and this 
opinion she has reiterated in her letters to me, especially 
since the war, which wrung her heart as if she had a 
brother or a son whose death she dreaded to see gazetted. 
An attempt she made to read Barbara Frietohie and her 
daughter's touching Boat of Grass, the last time she 
read in Boston, came to an end through her uncontrol- 
lable emotion. I must quote her Sonnets on the Amer- 
ican War as expressing in noble verse the hopes of our 
enemies, the despondency of our timid friends, and, 
finally, the assurance of our ultimate triumph and its 
solemnity. 

SONNETS ON THE AMERICAN WAR 



She has gone down ! They shout it from afar, — 

Kings, nobles, priests, all men of every race 

"Whose lagging clogs time's swift, relentless pace. 

She has gone down, — om* evil-boding star; 

Rebellion smitten with rebellion's sword, 

Anarchy done to death by slavery, 

Of ancient right, insolvent enemy ; 

Beneath a hideous cloud of civil war, 

Strife such as heathen slaughterers had abhorred, 

The lawless land where no man was called lord, 

Spurning all wholesome curb, and dreaming free, 

Her rabble rules licentious tyranny. 

In the fierce splendor of her arrogant morn 

She has gone down, the world's eternal scorn. 



FRANCES ANNE KEAIBLE 313 

II. 

She has gone down ! Woe for the world and all 

The weary workers, gazing from afar 

At the clear rising of that liopeful star, — 

Star of redemption to each weejiing thrall 

Of power decrepit, and of rule outworn ; 

Beautiful shining of that blessed morn 

Which was to bring leave for the poor to live, 

To work and rest, to labor and to thrive, 

And righteous room for all who nobly strive. 

Slie has gone down ! Woe for the struggling world. 

Back on its path of progress sternly hurled ! 

Land of sufficient harvests for all dearth. 

Home of far-seeing hope, time's latest birth; 

Woe for the promised land of the whole earth ! 



Triumph not, fools, and weep not, ye faint-hearted ! 

Have ye believed that the supreme decree 

Of Heaven had given this people o'er to perish ? 

Have ye believed that God had ceased to cherish 

This great, new world of Christian liberty ? 

Nay, by the precious blood shed to redeem 

The nation from its selfishness and sin ; 

By each brave heart that bends in holy strife, 

Leaving its kindred hearts to break through life ; 

By all the bitter tears, whose source must stream 

Forever every desolate home within. 

We will return to our appointed place, 

First in the vanguard of the human race. 

When we review Fanny Kemble's achievements, her 
acting, her reading, her writing, her personal influence, 
we must accord her genius. As to her writings, her 
Journal is sometimes saucy, as written by a young girl 
who had gone forth from home for the first time ; but 
how graphic her pictures of places and people, how 
sparkhng with wit and full of feeling, with a sad under- 



314 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

tone, for an early disappointment had already shaded 
her young days ; her Poems, written for the most part 
after joy and hope had vanished, so charged with an- 
guish; her Year of Consolation, breathing the atmos- 
phere of Italy, and imparting the refreshment and fitful 
happiness she enjoyed; her Residence on a Georgian 
Plantation, as pathetic and cruel as Uncle Tom's Cabin, 
and fateful to her, haunted by the sin of such possession ; 
her Notes upon some of Shakespeare's plays and upon 
the stage, so discriminating, especially her remarks upon 
the Dramatic and the Theatrical. 

But the most valuable of all her writings are the 
Records of her Girlhood ^ and of her Later Life ; for 
these, beginning with a reminiscence of her earliest 
years, are soon succeeded by what is much more reliable, 
a record, not reverting to, but running along with, her 
life from day to day, incidentally revealed by letters to 
her dearest friend, communicating events and outpouring 
her inmost thoujjhts and feelings.^ And this life was 
like the course of a mountain brook. 

The current, that with gentle murmur glides, 

Thou knowest, being stopp'd impatiently doth rage; 

But, when his fair course is not hindered, 

He makes sweet music with the enamel'd stones, 

Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge 

He overtaketh in his pilgrimage ; 

And so by many winding nooks he strays, 

With willing sport, to the wild ocean. 

1 First published in The Atlantic, 1875-77, under the title "Old 
Woman's Gossip." 

- The third series, " Further liecords," cannot be spoken of in the 
same hreatli with the previous volumes. It was publislied in 1890, 
when Mrs. Keinble was too old to scrutinize tlie proofs, and abounds 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 315 

Like tlie Banished Duke, she felt her life more sweet 

Under the shade of melancholy boughs, 
Than that of painted pomp ; 

and in her sad and solitary pilgrimage she lifted her 
eyes unto the hills, year after year, so long as she 
could travel. She there found restoration. Perhaps it 
was an inheritance from her mother's mother, who 
was Swiss. 

There was in her personality a sweetness and fullness 
of feeling in every direction, something akin to the 
nature of her great master, Shakespeare ; a worship of 
God and of nature in all its phases, love of and sym- 
pathy with all creatures, exuberant spirits, need of 
motion, need of love, resistance to all authority, a 
sweet-tempered, cheerful indifference to all punishment. 
From her childhood days, whether she was hoping that 
her little sister, of whom she was jealous, would poison 
herself with privet berries ; or suffering anguish over 
her lost little brother ; or running away in resentment 
for some punishment; or defiantly singing during her 
term of expiation ; or walking upon the roof of her 
Boulogne schoolhouse as a release from confinement, 
" cette diahle de Kemhle ; " or writing abstracts of 
sermons for her less gifted school companions ; or 
devouring the poetry of Scott and Byron ; or acting 
Andromaque at her Paris boaixling-school ; or fishing 
all day with her mother at their rural retreat ; or 
strolling about Heath Farm with her new-found, life- 

in details fit for the car of a frienil, but not of the public, and ill-con- 
sidered opinions which slie did not permanently hold ; and I know 
that, when too late, she was much troubled about it. 



316 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

long friend, Miss St. Leger, making hawthorn wreaths ; 
or wading into the river, accoutred as she was; or 
listening to the music of " Der Freischiitz ; " or scrutiniz- 
ing the peculiarities of some of her relatives, aunt 
Whitelock in particular ; or writing verses ; or grieving 
over her brother John's course at the university and her 
parents' disappointment, she was always the same 
bright, intense, exultant human creature. In her com- 
position, humor, that safeguard, that salt of humanity, 
was an element, — a healthy, hearty humor, excited by 
her own as well as by her neighbors' absurdities, and 
derived from her quick-witted mother, her father's 
family being somewhat deficient in that endowment. 
Like President Lincoln, she might have died but for 
this occasional relief. 

Before she was eighteen she had written the play of 
Francis I., and had been offered two hundred pounds for 
it. About this time she went to Edinburgh to stay with 
Mrs. Harry Siddons, a very self-restrained and lovely 
woman, under whose powerful influence this young girl's 
mind became much affected by religious considerations, 
and a strong devotional element developed which char- 
acterized her ever afterwards. All through her life her 
thoughts were more on rehgion than on any other sub- 
ject. On her first visit to Boston, when the general 
adulation was calculated to turn her head, her great 
pleasure was to make and cherish the acquaintance of 
Dr. Channing, — an acquaintance which ripened into a 
lifelong friendship. In Philadelphia, Dr. Furness was 
her most cherislied friend. She it was who first made 
Robertson known to many of us ; indeed, it was through 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 317 

her advice that his sermons were republished in this 
country. She dehghted in the society and the minis- 
trations of Phillips Brooks, who once said to me, "I 
think she is the best woman I have ever known." Her 
letters to her bosom friend and her journals were filled 
with religious reflections; on the day of her London 
debut she spent the morning reading Blunt's " Scripture 
Characters." 

When, from being an insignificant schoolgirl, she had 
suddenly become "a little lion in society," with approba- 
tion, admiration and adulation showered upon her, and 
social courtesies poured in upon her from every side ; 
when she was petted and caressed by persons of real and 
conventional distinction, she writes to her friend: 
" When I reflect that admiration and applause, and the 
excitement springing therefrom, may become necessary 
to me, I resolve not only to watch, but to pray, against 
such a result. I have no desire to sell my soul for 
anything, least of all for sham fame, mere notoriety." 
Her prayers were aiLSwered, for while her nerves were 
affected on the stage, and while she lost her sleep for 
some time and suffered from headache andsideache from 
the same cause, she was able to discuss her merits and 
demerits coolly ; her mind and heart were disengaged ; 
she longed to flee with her friend to Heath Farm, to 
renew their pleasant walks and talks ; she was solici- 
tous as ever about the health and happiness of all her 
friends. Steadiness under circumstances so calculated 
to elate, to intoxicate, seems to me phenomenal ; it 
speaks for the nobility and depth of her nature, to turn 
from what her good aunt Dall called " mere frivolous, 



318 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HEXRY LEE 

fashionable popularity," and to decide that this was mere 
vanity. 

I believe that if Fanny Kemble had been a man she 
would have been a minister of religion, as her brother 
John intended to be ; her letters and journals are full 
of aspiration and inspiration. The prayer which she 
breathed in behalf of a young debutante, " that she 
might be able to see the truth of all things in the 
midst of all things false," was for her fulfilled ; in 
the days of her youth and her triumphs, as well as in 
her sad and solitary after life, she realized that " things 
seen are temporal, things not seen are eternal." 

" The purpose of life alone," she writes, " time wherein 
to do God's will, makes it sacred. I do not think it 
pleasant enough to wish to keep it for a single instant 
without the idea of the duty of living, since God has 
bid us live. After all, life is a heavy burden on a weary 
way, and I never saw the human being whose existence 
was what I should call happy. I have seen some whose 
lives were so good that they justified their own exist- 
ence, and one could conceive both why they lived and 
that they found it good to live." 

She was one who felt it was more blessed to give than 
to receive. She was chary of taking, but her bounty 
was not strained ; it fell, like the rain, on the just and 
on the unjust ; she seemed never so happy as when she 
could confer some favor or perform some service, so keen 
was her fellow-feeling. It is a received saying that it is 
more difficult to be just than to be generous. Fanny 
Kemble had both virtues; througliout her "Records" 
her notices of persons and of their works are most kindly, 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 319 

and in the case of Charles Greville, whose dechired 
friendship did not prevent him from inserting ill-natured 
remarks in his memoirs, — still more in the case of Miss 
Martineau, who, professedly cordial, had made most ab- 
surd and injurious libels, and to whom Mrs, Kemble has 
many allusions, — most magnanimous. And there are 
other instances of her magnanimity scattered through 
these delightful books ; not mere omissions to notice or 
to resent injustice and ingratitude, for she was frank- 
ness itself, but greatness of mind not biased by personal 
relations, — a forgiveness and seeming forgetfulness of 
injuries. 

Emerson says the alternatives offered to each of us 
are " peace or truth." Fanny Kemble certainly did not 
hesitate to choose the latter ; or perhaps she derived it 
unconsciously from her mother. Her statements regard- 
ing herself, her family, lier friends, her views of life, 
and her opinions on matters light and grave, extorted 
from her by her exacting friend Miss St. Leger, or given 
spontaneously, are what a clergyman of my acquaintance 
would have called " central truths," imdeflected by silli- 
ness or selfishness, and uninfluenced by mere authority. 
She aspired to independence of mind and bod}^ and she 
realized her aspirations. While she had her prejudices, 
was indeed somewhat insular, she shows few biased judg- 
ments, no morbid sentiments. Her eye was single, and 
her whole body full of light. 

Notwithstanding her plot to poison her little sister 
with privet berries, her attempted running away, her 
contemplated suicide, her defiant joyousness under re- 
proof, there is no trait in her character more lovable 



320 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

than her absolute filial and family devotion. It was 
her mother's tears and her father's thickening anxieties 
that thrust her upon the stage, absolutely unprepared 
save by her birth and breeding. " My life was rather 
sad at this time," she writes ; " my brother's failure at 
college was a source of disappointment and distress to 
my parents, while the darkening prospects of the theatre 
threw a gloom over us all. My mother, coming in from 
walking one day, threw herself into a chair and burst 
into tears. 'Oh, it has come at last!' she said; 'our 
property is to be sold.' Seized with a sort of terror, like 
tlie Lady of Shalott, that ' the cui-se had come upon me,' 
I wrote a most urgent entreaty to my father that he 
would allow me to act for myself, so as to relieve him 
at once from the burden of my maintenance." Her fre- 
quent alarms over her father's infatuation for Covent 
Garden Theatre, in which he sank successively eighty 
thousand pounds of his brother's investment, his own 
and his two daughters' earnings, her anxiety over his 
consequent illnesses, and her sympathy with her mother's 
deep distress evince the strength of the filial tie ; and 
her grief over her brother John's failures and meander- 
ings, a bitter disappointment to his father and mother ; 
her affection for him, and for her handsome young 
brother Henry ; her tender solicitude for her sister Ade- 
laide ; and her delight in being able from her earn- 
ings to aid them all, — giving a horse to her father, 
buying a commission in the army for her brother Henry, 
assuring comfort, even luxury, to her father by giving 
him for life her earnings in England and America, upon 
her marriage, granting assistance to the otherwise unpro- 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 321 

vided-for children of her two brothers, and other despoil- 
ing of herself for those she loved, even while she was 
toiling for her own support, — these things attest her 
affection for all her kin. 

Her loyalty to her friends was as enduring, her affec- 
tion as unreserved, as to her family. The interesting 
Records were made possible by the return of forty years' 
constant correspondence with the friend of her girlhood, 
Miss St. Leger ; her relations with Miss Sedgwick and 
family were as continuous ; the young schoolgirl whom 
she captured hanging flowers upon the knob of her door 
in the Tremont House, upon her first visit to Boston, 
became her lifelong intimate, and compels this inade- 
quate sketch ; and, as the book reveals, other friends, 
whose adoption she had tried, she grappled to her soul 
•with hooks of steel which never rusted. " God knows 
how devoutly I thank him for the treasure of love that 
has been bestowed on me out of so many hearts, in 
a measure so far above my deserts that my gratitude 
is mingled with surprise and a sense of my own un- 
worthiness which enliances my appreciation of my great 
good fortune in this respect." To her sorrow, her life 
was so prolonged that she outlived not only her brothers 
and sister, but most of her friends likewise ; the sur- 
vivors reciprocated her love, and feel that the world 
is more sad and dreary by loss of the light and warmth 
of her great presence. 

Consistency is said to be a jewel. Fanny Kemble 
neither inherited nor acquired it: she had curiously 
inconsistent moods and traits ; she had a collection 
rather than a combination of qualities. And no wonder, 

21 



322 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

when we refer to her birth and her bringing-up. The 
twisthig of foreign strands, the weaving of different 
materials, the forging of different metals, by combining 
compensating qualities, add to the strength and value 
of the compound ; so the crossing of races sometimes 
results in a harmonious completeness possessed by 
neither race singly, but at other times it results in the 
coexistence of discordant extremes. Such was the case 
in the Kemble iiousehold, the mother inheriting from 
her French father and Swiss mother " the peculiar or- 
ganization of genius. To the fine senses of a savage 
rather than a civilized nature she joined an acute instinct 
of criticism in all matters of art, and a general quick- 
ness and accuracy of perception, and brilliant vividness 
of expression." As her poor father, like other French 
emigres^ was sickening from starvation and the influence 
of tlie climate, this bright, graceful, and beautiful child, 
enrolled in a troupe of little actors, and admired and 
petted by the great, from the "first gentleman of 
Europe " down, thereby developing precocious feeling 
and imagination, was saddened by the ghastly contrast 
between the comforts and luxuries of the rich, with 
which she was made familiar, and her own poor home, 
where sickness and sorrow were becoming abiding in- 
mates, and poverty and privation the customary condi- 
tions of life. " Of course, the pleasure and beauty 
loving, artistic temperament, which is the one most 
likely to be exposed to such an ordeal as that of my 
mother's childliood, is also the one liable to be most 
injured by it. How much the passionate, vehement, 
susceptible, and most suffering natm-e was thus bane- 



i 



FRANCES AXXE KEMBLE 323 

fully fostered I can better judge from the sad vantage- 
ground of my own experience." Linked to this fiery, 
loving, suffering, acute-minded woman was an affec- 
tionate, dignified, heavy-moulded husband, with his 
share of the theatrical traits of his family, to whom she 
and their children were warmly attached, but who 
neither shared nor comprehended the finer senses or 
higher standard of his wife, and for that reason proba- 
bly wounded all the more her sensibilities. 

Fanny Kemble inlierited her full share of her mother's 
susceptibilities, vehemence, and suffering nature: her 
pulse thrilled, her heart beat, her tears gushed forth 
upon every occasion, painful or pleasurable ; her im- 
petuosity burst the bounds of self-control, making her 
deaf to assurances or remonstrances ; as she herself said, 
" My suddenness is the curse of my nature." Speaking 
of her home, she says : " The defect of our home educa- 
tion is that, from the mental tendencies of all of us, no 
less than from our whole mode of life, the more imagina- 
tive and refined intellectual qualities are fostered in us 
in preference to our reasoning power. We have all 
excitable natures ; and whether in head or heart, that 
is a disadvantage. The unrestrained indulgence of 
feeling is as injurious to moral strength as the undue 
excess of fancy is to mental vigor." 

To brace herself against her temperament, Fanny 
Kemble cultivated unusually systematic pursuits and 
monotonous habits, from an instinct of self-preserva- 
tion, persuaded, as she says, "that religion and reason 
alike justify such a strong instinctive action in natures 
which derive a constant mental support from the sooth- 



324 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

ing and restraining influence of systematic habits of 
monotonous regularity." An observant friend of Mrs. 
Kemble said to me, as much as forty years ago : " If 
Fanny Kemble did not read her Bible at such an hour, 
visit at such an hour, exercise at such an hour, and gird 
herself with set habits, she would go mad." But this 
is not the whole explanation; for while she did un- 
doubtedly thus seek support, she had inherited from 
her very English father a worship of law and order, 
of church and state, of ancient customs, which con- 
trasted violently with her usual impulsiveness and as- 
sertion of individuality. The upholder of form and 
etiquette, the asserter of dignity to-day, would to-morrow 
defy conventionality, mortify friends, and scandalize 
strangers by walking in full dress into a river, up to 
her arms, and then go dripping home through a crowd 
of beholders. And this metamorphosis was as swift 
as the flow in a spirit thermometer, as sudden as the 
transformation scene in a pantomime, and as absolute ; 
the passing was instantaneous and unconscious. 

During the life of Gouverneur Kemble, — a delightful 
gentleman, crony of Washington Irving, remote kins- 
man of Fanny Kemble, to whom he played the host at 
his pleasant place on the Hudson River, opposite West 
Point, — Saturday was called at the Military Academy 
" Kemble day," because the professors and officers went 
in turn to dine with their neighbor. When Fanny 
Kemble took on her magisterial style, it might well 
have been called " Kemble day," for it was an inheri- 
tance from her theatrical ancestors, and recalled anec- 
dotes of John Phihp Kemble and Mrs. Siddons. 



FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE 325 

I was impelled one day to say to Mrs. Kemble that I 
had found out what was the matter with her : there 
were too many of her, — she must have been intended 
for twins ; and I cannot better define the superabundant, 
tumultuous, dual nature, partaking of the extreme 
antipodal characteristics of her parents. 

Her feelinofs rose and fell like the tide in the British 
Channel, and every few hours, when the tide was turn- 
ing, she was in a state of agitation, tossed like a 
cockle boat on a cross sea. I doubt if any friend of 
Fanny Kemble thinks of her in a composed state, but 
rather as moved by joy or sorrow ; and this agitation 
led her to shrink from general society as too exciting 
and too embarrassing to one so easily discomposed, and 
to long for a communion with nature and familiar 
friends, — a feeling fully reciprocated by those friends 
who enjoyed her most under such conditions. One 
cannot read her books without laughing and grieving 
over the series of scrapes and collisions caused by her 
suddenness, rashness, and subsequent fears, her assertion 
of independence, her acute sympathies, her mission as a 
crusader. Some of INIrs. Kemble's collisions, which 
are reported with exaggeration, reduced to bare facts, 
can be referred to these peculiarities, some to her 
theatrical inheritance, some to her self-imposed duty as 
a crusader, some to a sudden freak, some to her em- 
barrassment and consequent clutching at safety, or 
passing along the mortification at her own discom- 
posure. She says somewhere, " I am always remarkably 
cross when I am frightened," — a natural concatena- 
tion. From whatever cause she occasionally wounded 



326 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

the feelings of others, her repentance was swift and 
sincere ; her sense of justice, her warmth of heart, 
brought remorse and repentance. 

Such as she was, brimming over with reverence 
and gratitude to God, with love to man, with sensibility 
to all the problems of life, to nature, with interest in art, 
in literature, in politics ; generous, magnanimous, truth- 
ful, full of hope ; crowned and worshipped, then struck 
down, doomed to bear thenceforth her heavy cross alone, 
— she has been to her family a guardian angel, to her 
friends a mighty fortress and shelter, to the world a 
delight and refreshment. 

Mrs. Kemble's wish to die at home was fulfilled. Old 
age crept upon her in her own country, in the home 
of her younger daughter, wife of an English clergyman, 
and there she passed instantaneously from life to death. 

Green ivy risen from out the cheerful earth 

Will fringe the lettered stone, and herbs spring forth, 

Whose fragrance, by soft dews and rain unbound, 

Shall penetrate the heart without a wound ; 

While truth and love their pui-poses fulfill, 

Commemorating genius, talent, skill, 

That could not lie concealed where thou wast known ; 

Thy virtues He must judge, and He alone. 

The God upon whose mercy they are thrown. 



The Samuel Cabot home, Brookline, the last house occupied 
by Colonel Lee 



OBITUARIES 



MAJOR CHARLES J. MILLS 

I would the friends we miss were safe arrived. 

Some must go off ; and yet, by these I see, 
So great a day as this is cheaply bought. 

Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt ; 
He only liv'd but till he was a man ; 
The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd, 
In the unshrinking station where he fought, 
But like a man he died. 

The telegraph, which has borne the tidings of great 
victories during the past week, has not yet perhaps 
doled out our full list of losses. A few names have 
reached us, and among them that of Major Charles 
J. Mills, killed almost on the day of his return to 
his post, not yet recovered from long and enfeebling 
illness. 

One of the heroic class of 1860, a kinsman of Wilder 
and Howard Dwight, he early prepared himself for 
service by drill and study, and sought it most per- 
sistently. But his almost feminine delicacy of appear- 
ance inspired distrust and deterred one commander after 
another from accepting one whose slender frame seemed 
so unfitted for the hardships of a compaign. Still 
he persevered, was made Second Lieutenant in the 
Second Regiment, August 14, 1862, promoted to a first 
lieutenancy three days later, took part in the retreat 



330 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

after Cedar Mountain, acted as adjutant at Antietam, 
was fearfully wounded and lay two nights on the battle 
field. 

This wound crippled him so hopelessly that, after 
montlis of suffering borne with fortitude, he was com- 
pelled to resign. Determined to serve his countr}'- in 
one way if not in another, he obtained a situation in the 
bureau of Admh-al Davis at Washington, and labored 
faithfully till he flattered himself his health was re- 
stored. In the autumn of 1863, he dragged himself 
back into the army, became the Adjutant of the Fifty- 
sixth Regiment, and was soon transferred to the staff of 
Brigadier-General Stevenson, whom he served devotedly 
till the lamented death of that officer. Then, after a 
brief service on the staffs of several brigadiers, he was 
made Assistant Adjutant-General by Major-General 
Hancock, and passed from him to his successor, General 
Humphreys, having been promoted to the rank of 
Captain and Major. He served through the long bloody 
campaign from the battles of the Wilderness down 
to tliis date, interrupted occasionally by illness. 

A modest, sensitive, conscientious, intelligent, brave 
officer, a loving, dutiful son, an affectionate friend, 
he died with the love and respect of all who knew him, 
— family, friends, classmates, comrades of the camp. 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS G. 
STEVENSON 

The hand of the reaper 
Takes the ears that are hoary, 
But the voice of the weeper 
Wails manhood in glory. 

Fleet foot on the correi, 
Sage counsel in cumber, 
Red hand in the foray, 
How sound is thy slumber! 

While brave men are falling by thousands, while 
the wires that flash the joyful news of victories vibrate 
with tidings of the wounded and dying, while so many 
homes are made desolate, and the mourners go about the 
street, wliile so many more are feverish with anxiety, 
dreading lest the next long list shall include the looked- 
for name, it seems almost invidious to challenge public 
sympathy for the loss of any one soldier, however high 
his rank. 

But those who have watched the course of Brigadier- 
General Stevenson are aware that one of the most 
promising officers of the army has fallen; those who 
have served under him will feel that one of the bravest, 
wisest, kindest commanders has been taken away from 
them; those who came within the wide circle of liis 
friendship, who have been warmed by his cordial smile, 
have felt his hearty grasp, know that they have lost a 



332 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

faithful friend ; those who have entered his happy home 
realize the peculiar poignancy of this bereavement, that 
in that darkened house tlie silver cord is loosed indeed. 
As a soldier, his imperturbable coolness, quick insight, 
unerring judgment, and thorough mastery of his art, 
attracted at once the attention of his superiors, and 
rapidly won their enthusiastic admiration. 

As an oflficer, his abilities commanded confidence, 
his almost stern dignity inspired fear, his friendly 
counsel, given with feminine tact, awakened gratitude, 
his postponement of his own comfort to that of his men, 
his disregard of self, his tender care of those committed 
to his charge, created a passionate attachment. 

Off duty, he was the bosom friend of the youngest 
lieutenant; on duty, he was the commander; and this 
transformation was complete, the boundary line was 
distinct. 

It was difficult to say whether fear or love predomi- 
nated in the hearts of those who followed him and 
idolized him. 

The list of Massachusetts officers comprises many 
men of brilliant intellects and heroic hearts, but we 
have never known one who had such a happy combi- 
nation of all the qualities of head and heart that go to 
make a perfect soldier and a successful commander, 
as Thomas G. Stevenson. 



G. HOWLAND SHAW 

On his young promise Beauty smiled, 
Drew his free homage uiibeguiled, 
And Prosperous Age held out his hand, 
And richly his large future planned, 
And troops of friends enjoyed the tide — 
All, all was given, and only health denied. 

Sad is the news from the battlefield of the young and 
strong slain fighting for their country, but sadder 
still the story of a struggle between a strong, ardent 
spirit, and a frail body ; every generous impulse, every 
noble ambition frustrated, every important undertaking 
interrupted by the importunate claims of the perishing 
flesh, till a life which would have been cheerfully spent 
for friends and country is reduced to only waiting. 
Such was the history of my friend whose name I here 
record. 

Endowed with remarkable executive ability, which 
he desired to devote to his family, his friends, or his 
country ; possessed of wealth, which he held as a steward 
for all private or public needs; fired with patriotism, 
which he longed to have tasked, his disinterested labor 
would have been invaluable, however indirect. 

The same spirit which supported his brother as a self- 
denying Catholic priest, which prompted his nephew 
to lead the forlorn hope on Fort Wagner, inspired him ; 
but the flesh was weak. But while sickness defeated 



334 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

his plans and death shortened liis career, he will be 
remembered by a large circle as a man of exalted 
character, great energy and ability, refined tastes, and 
charming manners ; a most affectionate friend, a cheerful 
and bountiful benefactor, an ardent patriot. 

Fell the bolt on the branching oak, 
The rainbow of his hope was broke, 
No craven cry, no secret tear — 
He told no pang, he knew no fear ; 
Its peace sublime his aspect kept; 
His purpose woke, his features slept. 

L. 



SARAH ALDEN [MRS. SAMUEL] RIPLEY 

Weep not ; she is not dead, but sleepeth. 

And surely she needeth sleep ; for if time is measured 
by sensations, her life has been prolonged beyond the 
mortal span ; if we consider the Avork accomplished, 
wlio has achieved so much, for herself or for othere ? 
Or if we meditate upon the Christian graces, the beati- 
tudes of meekness, purity of heart, the charity which 
suffereth long and is kind, vaunteth not itself, seeketh 
not her own, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth in the truth, 
whose character was more complete, whose spirit more 
ready for its flight, than hers ? 

The wife of the minister of a large country parish 
whose parochial labor she shared, the mother of a large 
family, tlie mistress of a household increased by board- 
ing scholars, neither the heavy exactions of parishioners, 
nor importunate maternal pains and anxieties, nor house- 
hold economies faithfully attended to, exhausted her; 
she still found time and strenofth to devote to two 
or three school-boys preparing for college, or more 
advanced students rusticated for idleness or academic 
misdemeanors. And what a wealth of learning and 
thought and feeling she poured out for these pupils ! 
Illumined by her clear intellect, the knottiest problem 
was disentangled ; embellished by such a lover of learn- 
ing, the driest subject was made interesting. The 



336 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

veriest scapegrace was reduced to thoughtfulness, the 
most hopeless dullard caught a gleam of light; her 
faith in their intuitions and capabilities lifted them 
and shamed or encouraged them to efforts impossible 
under another instructor ; for she did not merely impart 
instruction, she educated all the powers of the mind 
and heart. Many scholars now eminent can date their 
first glimpse of the region above, their first venture 
upon the steep path, to the loving enthusiasm, the 
cheering assurances, of this inspired teacher and friend ; 
and they who fainted or strayed without fulfilling her 
confident predictions must look back with astonishment 
at this brilliant period of their lives, and regret that her 
influence could not have been extended over a longer 
period. 

A mind alive to all the beauties of art and science 
and nature, a heart which warmed to the most un- 
promising pupil and kindled at the faintest ray of hope, 
naturally craved the company of kindred men and 
women of learning and thought, as they delighted in 
hers ; this was Mrs. Ripley's true recreation after 
the toil and trouble of the day. And what pleasant 
parties used to gather round her hospitable fireside! 
What ambrosial nights, fondly remembered by the 
privileged persons who enjoyed them as actors or 
spectators ! There were, probably, books she had not 
read, languages and sciences she had not learned, 
but she seemed to have explored every region and 
to have intuitive ideas on every subject of interest. 
And over all these gifts and acquirements was thrown a 
veil of modesty so close that only by an impulse of 



SARAH ALDEN [MRS. SAMUEL] RIPLEY 337 

sympathy or enthusiasm was it ever withdrawn ; with 
a simplicity equally amusing and touching, she im- 
pressed you so little with her own wonderful powers, 
and referred so much to your sayings and doings, 
that you really went away wondering at your own 
brilliancy and doubting how much you had given, how 
much received. 

The eloquent lips are silent, the flashing eye is 
dull, the blush of modesty has faded from the cheek, 
the cordial smile will never again on this earth welcome 
the friends, old or young, humble or famous, neighbors 
or strangers, who sought this inspired presence. But 
the puzzled brain is clear again, the heavy heart joyful, 
immortal youth returned. With those she loved on 
earth she is seeing face to face what she here saw 
darkly. 

Learn the mystery of progression duly ; 

Do not call each glorious change decay ; 
But know we only hold our treasures truly 

When it seems as if they passed away. 



22 



WILLIAM H. LOGAN 

[May 10, 1870] 

O, good old man ! how well in thee appears 
The constant service of the antique world. 

Logan, old Logan, as he was familiarly called — has 
passed away, at the prescribed age of three score years 
and ten. He spent his days in what we deem the 
meanest, but what our Master pronounced the noblest 
employment, — serving his fellow-men. Standing be- 
hind the chair at all feasts and festivities, how many 
changes, personal, social and political he must have 
recorded in his memory, — a whole generation passed 
along, the vanishing of some families from light to 
darkness, the emerging of others from obscurity to 
conspicuousness, the utter extinction of names once 
famous, the introduction of names once unknown I To 
how many incautious utterances he must have closed 
his ears, to how many contemptuous flings at his 
despised race he must have indignantly listened ! Born 
a slave he lived to be a respected freeman, and to see 
his whole race emancipated, their social and political 
riglits granted, and some of his brethren advanced to 
high office. 

He was a faithful husband, an affectionate father, 
a good citizen, a sincere Christian. We shall miss 



WILLIAM II. LOGAN 339 

his venerable grey head, his grave dignified face, his 
kindly, solicitous manner, marked by consideration for 
others and respect for self, his presence associated for 
so many, many years with all our gaieties. We made 
his acquaintance in the house of feasting ; we shall part 
with him regretfully in the house of mourning. 



FEANCIS CABOT LOWELL 

He could not frame a word unfit, 
An act unworthy to be done ; 
Honor prompted every glance — 
Honor came and sat beside him. 

The bare fact of Mr. Lowell's death at the limit set 
down in Scripture was published bj' you, and they who 
had seen his increasing paleness and slowness, as he 
walked our streets, only wondered that his departure 
had been so long delayed. 

Though a month has passed away, no one of those 
who felt cheered or admonished by his presence has 
ventured to express what his absence means to them. 

But now that the ear is dull which would have been 
wounded by our words, we have a right to pay liim this 
tribute of our respect and affection. 

He was happily born, descended from two families 
linked together by long intimacy and strictest friend- 
ship ; families distinguished for generations by their 
integrity and public spirit, many members of them 
eminent in their various professions. 

His father, INIr. Francis Cabot Lowell, was a man 
of philosophic mind, always studying out some scheme 
of development to benefit his fellow-men; and, among 
other enterprises, he and his brother-in-law, Mr. Patrick 
Tracy Jackson, risking their fortunes and their credit, 



FRANCIS CABOT LOWELL 341 

succeeded at last in establishing the cotton manufacture 
in our State. 

His brother, Mr. John Lowell, Jr., created the Lowell 
Institute. It was not in Mr. Lowell's power to bequeath 
a great legacy to the public, like this elder brother ; it 
did not fall to his lot to help to found a new branch of 
industry, which should build up cities and give employ- 
ment to thousands upon thousands ; but he had the same 
scope and look into the future, the same care for the 
public weal, the same willingness to sow that others 
might reap. He had not the health to devote himself 
to a profession, and so serve his fellow-men, as did his 
uncles, the good Doctor and the wise Judge Jackson, 
but he had many of the qualities which made them so 
respected and beloved. 

Heir to a moderate fortune, which he increased by 
enterprises wisely planned and boldly executed, he was 
never subdued by his means. 

Neither elated by prosperity nor cast down by ad- 
versity, calm and magnanunous, he chose always to live 
modestly and give grandly. 

It was with his services as with his fortune ; his 
modesty restrained him from seeking responsibilities, 
his conscience compelled him to accept and discharge 
them when they came to him. 

He was born a counsellor, never so happy as when 
aiding by advice or assistance, but his benevolence was 
guided by tact, he knew when and how to give and to 
withhold with equal delicacy. 

He had the high, unerring wisdom vouchsafed only to 
the pure in heart, his eye was single and his whole body 
full of light. 



342 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

He had an uncompromising love of truth, a sincerity 
which limited his speech on occasion to yea, yea, — nay, 
nay, or bound him to silence when a weaker man must 
have spoken. 

And all this truthfulness and wisdom and calmness 
and magnanimity and tender consideration for others 
who stood in need of help was blazoned in his face and 
in his serene dignity of manner. 

To come into his presence was to be summoned before 
an august tribunal, a merciful but just judge ; he was 
formidable without intention ; his tranquil mind abashed 
the noisy and vulgar, his eye searched through disguises 
and the wearers felt themselves exposed, his dignified 
silence or brief words of truth foiled the flatterer, the 
current coin of society did not ring clear on the table of 
this assay master. 

" I believe I have never expressed to any one more 
than I felt," he once musingly remarked, and this noble 
forbearance embarrassed the man of the world with his 
half insincere effusiveness. 

This conscientious brevity or silence was sometimes 
mistaken for severity, sometimes for pride. 

But he neither censured nor looked down on his 
fellow-men, he judged as he would be judged ; the 
smile which lighted up his face and the gentle courtesy 
of his address were outward signs of a charity which 
characterized liis thoughts and words and acts, taking 
every form but that of publicity. 

In losing him, many have lost their wisest counsellor, 
their most bountiful benefactor, their truest friend, 
their surest guide ; and we revere his memory not only 



FRANCIS CABOT LOWELL 343 

for what he said, for what he did, but above all, for the 
spirit "which prompted all his words and acts — for ^A'hat 
he was. 

" The wisdom that is from above is first true, then 
peaceable, then gentle, full of mercy and good fruits, 
without partiaUty and without hypocrisy." 

H. L. 



MARTIN L. WHITCHER 

ISeptember 6, 1875] 

How happy is he born or taught 
Who serveth not another's will ; 
Whose armor is his honest thought 
And simple truth his utmost skill. 

This name will recall, to all who ever knew him, a 
singularly frank and handsome countenance, a mellifluous 
voice, a deliberate speech, a friendly, refined manner, — 
all indicative of the man. A modest, tlioughtful, inde- 
pendent man, calmly following his calling, unmoved by 
glittering generalities of any sort, slow to undertake, 
swift to execute ; chary of promise, fastidious of per- 
formance ; proud of his craft, devoted to his work, he 
sought no adventitious distinctions, contenting himself 
with the scrupulous discharge of every duty as husband, 
father, workman, and citizen. 

We have never known one to whom would apply the 
welcome of " Well done, good and faithful servant," 
more justly than to the subject of this imperfect tribute, 
offered by one who for thirty years has depended upon 
him for faithful work and friendly counsel. 



MRS. GEORGE TICKNOR 

One generation passeth away, and another generation 
Cometh. The smell of Parma violets, the sight of a 
quaint old morocco work-box, bring back the image of 
a lovely old lady dressed in black with a widow's cap, 
knitting in her arm-chair in a sunny parlor of one of the 
complete habitations of Boston sixty years since. The 
lady was Katharine Atkins, widow of Samuel Eliot, 
a public-spirited, wealthy merchant, patron of clergymen 
and scholars ; — the handsome old house stood where 
now the Albion stands, and the garden and greenhouse, 
where grew the violets, stretched up Beacon Street in 
the rear of the house. 

The dainty work-box was bequeathed to one of my 
family by this venerable lady, as a token of motherly 
affection. 

I have known all the sons and daughters of this 
house, and a more friendly, loyal, conscientious set of 
men and women, anxious to fulfil their duties to God 
and to their neighbor, never lived in their generation. 

Charles Eliot died a promising young clergyman, 
to the intense grief of his family and a large circle 
of friends ; — some persons now living recollect Mr. 
William Eliot, cut off just as he had been elected 
Mayor, but not until he had endeared himself to his 
fellow-citizens by his personal traits, and had enriched 



346 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

and embellished his native town by his far-seeing enter- 
prise. Mr. Samuel Eliot's brave career as Mayor, 
as well as his service in Congress and his labors as 
founder of the Academy of Music, are recalled by 
many; some of us remember him also as leader for 
years of the choir of the King's Chapel. 

A broken circle of friends cherish the memory of 
hospitable homes presided over by the daughters of this 
family, as distinguished for their charities and public 
spirit as were their brothers ; and none more hospitable 
to friends within, or to the stranger without the gates 
than the house of the last and youngest of the family, 
Mrs. Anna Ticknor, whose death has just been an- 
nounced. There was not a house in Boston where, 
year after year, so many guests, old and young, kinsfolk 
and friends and strangers, were so frequently and so 
fully entertained. A few of those favored with an 
invitation to the weekly parties still linger to recall 
their charm. The cordiality of the hostess, the rare 
gifts and accomplishments of the host, the gathering 
of all that was best in the social, artistic, and literary 
world, the frequent presence of interesting guests 
from abroad, all contributed to distinguish these par- 
ties. Simplicity and elegance have never been so 
happily combined as in this stately mansion with 
its ample parlors and grand ideal library. Many a 
poor scholar, many a promising youth has been dis- 
covered and introduced to the great world within 
those walls. 

We here speak of Mrs. Ticknor only as a hostess, 
— we might enlarge upon her character as a discrimi- 



MRS. GEORGE TICKXOR 347 

nating dispenser of charities, as a loyal friend, as a de- 
voted kinswoman. 

One cannot reach to three score years and ten without 
experiencing the loss not only of friends, but of whole 
friendly clans, the absence of whose alliance and support 
makes the world desolate. The consciousness that they 
were around you, even if the cares of the world hindered 
you from frequent intercourse, imparted a warmth and 
shelter which every one craves and which cannot be 
supplied by acquaintances of a younger generation. 



GEORGE HIGGINSON 

1804-1889 

The kindest man, 
The best-conditioned and unwearied spirit 
In doing courtesies. 

" The Lady Arbella is dead, and good Mr. Higgin- 
son." Thus wrote Governor John Winthrop two 
hundred and sixty years ago, and to-day we thus 
speak of his descendant in the ninth generation. 

"My meaning in saying he is a good man," says 
Shylock, "is to have you understand me that he is 
sufficient ; " and I have often thought, as I hstened to 
or perused the eulogies on members of our different 
societies, that wealth is, in this manufacturing com- 
munity, deemed a synonym of goodness, — that a man 
is good in proportion as he is sufficient. If this be 
the standard of goodness, then our lost friend during 
most of his long life did not reach the standard ; and 
candor compels me to declare that the qualities which 
gave him his pre-eminence did not attract so much 
attention in his days of adversity as in his days of 
prosperity. Pre-eminence, I say, for in my opinion Mr. 
Higginson was pre-eminent in those qualities which 
entitle a man to love and respect. He had been tried 
by adversity and prosperity, and subdued by neither; 



GEORGE HIGGINSON 349 

he was liberal — nay, prodigal — of his time and his 
money in the service of all who were "distressed in 
mind, body, or estate." 

He waited not for wealth, but gave from his penury 
as afterwards from his abundance. He believed in 
the payment of debts with interest, no matter how 
outlawed by time, or how excusably incurred ; and he 
paid for others who were disabled as for himself. You 
have heard of men fleeing from their taxes, leaving them 
to be paid by their poorer neighbors ; but Mr. Higginson, 
not content with paying as doomed, complained to the 
assessors, and insisted on their doubling his tax. He 
took the same generous view of his social as of his 
pecuniary obligations. His hst of duties was most 
comprehensive ; and whether as father, friend, trustee, 
almoner, citizen, patriot, all were rigidly, unflinchingly, 
cheerfully discharged. 

At one period of the war, when one of his sons was 
lying dangerously wounded, another in Libby Prison, 
while a third was with his regiment in South Carolina ill 
of malarial fever, he repelled the condolences of a 
Copperhead friend, whose sons had been harbored at 
home, saying emphatically that he would not exchange 
places, and that he stood in no need of pity. Such was 
his standard of patriotism. 

To enumerate his beneficiaries would be impossible, 
as no human being stood near enough to him to ascer- 
tain their names or number ; and some surprising revela- 
tions have been made by those assisted. 

His habit of living, like his habit of giving, was 
liberal and unostentatious. An old-fashioned simplicity, 



350 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

in which he had been bred, he maintained through life, 
combined with an unbounded hospitality. 

An uncle of mine, who was at Andover Academy 
with the father and uncles of Mr. Higginson, said of 
them that they were the heartiest laughers and the 
fiercest fighters, and these traits have come down with 
the blood. 

I fear that some solemn occasions, like the funerals 
of distant relatives, have been disturbed or threatened 
by the outbursts of Mr. Higginson and his cousin 
Stephen, so akin are tears and laughter in persons of 
quick sympathy and keen sense of humor. He was 
also quick to resent an injury, and exploded instantane- 
ously upon the least hint of imposition or baseness, or of 
brazen intrusiveness. 

While he was truly humble, his honest pride re- 
belled against pretension ; but to those whose age or 
character warranted it, he paid willing reverence. To 
the lowly he was tenderly considerate, and to children 
and young people he was most gracious and affec- 
tionate. 

A stranger, meeting him in the street, would con- 
clude from his downcast look and his drooping gait 
that he was dejected, and so he was, for his early 
orplianage, the vicissitudes of his life, the loss of his 
wife, — of whom he could never speak but with tears, — 
had left sad memories. But the face of a friend, the 
sight of a little child, would transform him in an instant. 
His face would light up with cordiality, and his sighs 
be followed by words of affection or peals of laughter, 
for he was very human ; his blood was warm within, 



GEORGE HIGGIXSON 351 

and his heart most susceptible of joy or sorrow, of 
affection or anger. 

This impressibility made him hasty and sometimes 
unjust ; and his tenaciousness, or what he laughed over 
as his obstinacy, tended to stereotype his first impres- 
sions, but, as a rule, his judgments were to be relied on. 
Without the power to render his reasons, the habits of a 
long life of right feeling and good acting gave him 
an instinctive insight into character, a sense of danger 
or security which made him a safe guide. 

I have been intimately associated with Mr. Higgin- 
son for near sixty years, and I have never known a 
more upright, more warm-hearted, more disinterested 
man. 



JOHN GIBBS GILBERT 

1810-1889 

With John Gilbert has gone a part of Boston, not 
Boston covered with shops and factories, shrivelled into 
a dry-goods emporium, owned and obstructed by horse- 
cars, not Boston redolent of Irish and Portuguese, 
but the clean, orderly, respectable, old town of Boston, 
with its detached dwellings standing in the midst of 
sweet-smelling gaidens, with its streets sunny in winter 
and shady in summer ; seagirt, maritime Boston, with 
its wharves lined with ships, whose hardy navigators 
formed an important element in its neighbourly popula- 
tion, proud of their birth, their traditions and their 
occupations. Into this old town before it was developed 
into a city, John Gilbert was ushered ; he made his 
d^but upon the stage in the reign of the elder Quincy. 
The first time I ever saw him was in the part of Bucking- 
ham in Richard III upon his return to Boston after 
several years of varied experience in the West. From 
that time to the present — first at the Tremont Theatre, 
then at the old Federal, re-opened by Oliver Wyman, 
afterwards at the Boston, where for eight years I served 
as director and then treasurer, finally at Wallack's 
Theatre — I have followed his career and delighted in 
his personation of the old men of the old comedies. 



JOHN GIBBS GILBERT 353 

How his image comes back, as one of the rubicund, 
peppery, high-flavored, whimsical, strenuous, old gentle- 
men of the last century, Sir Anthony, Sir Peter, Old 
Hardcastle, Sir Robert Bramble, Old Dornton, Sir 
William Dorrillon, Old Rapid, Sir Abel Handy, and 
Lord Duberly, etc., etc. He had just enough hurly- 
burly, just enough heartiness ; he presented the coarse, 
robust squires and country gentlemen, with their code 
of manners and morals of George the Third's era. In 
fact, he seemed so much at home, he so revelled in their 
impersonation, that, while one could by no means say, 
as Goldsmith of Garrick, " 't was only that when he was 
off, he was acting," yet I confess he always seemed 
more unfamiliar as the quiet, dignified gentleman of 
modern date and dress than in breeches and powder. 

Many of his parts quite outside of these old comedies, 
his Frederick the Great, Mr. Simpson, Uncle John, his 
part in " Twenty Minutes with the Tiger," above all 
others his Dominie Sampson and his Caliban, were ad- 
mirably conceived and executed. Never have I laughed 
more uncontrollably than at him as the Dominie, with 
Miss Cushman as the Meg Men-ilies; and his Caliban 
remains to me the ideal to this time. 

One might go on with many comedies and farces, for 
he in his time played many parts. He had his limita- 
tions, of course, a certain hardness at times; he had 
personal defects which, striking at first, he very much 
outgrew. He was not so cosey as his predecessor at the 
Tremont Theatre, William F. Johnson, not so mellow 
in Sir Harcourt or Jesse Rural as was Blake. Warren 
played a greater variety of parts, and made the same 

23 



354 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

parts more varied and complete. But while Warren's 
Sir Peter, for instance, was more interesting and cap- 
tured your sympathy, it was rather the Sir Peter of our 
times — the Sir Peter as we wished him to be — than 
the Sir Peter Sheridan drew with the manners and feel- 
ings of his day; this Gilbert portrayed. Mr. Gilbert's 
delineations were like well-executed line engravings, 
dry, hard perhaps, but clear-cut with the firm hand of a 
master, not the faltering hand of a tyro. He came upon 
the stage armed cap-a-pie with dress and properties and 
part complete, and, as I have said, seemed more at home 
thus and there than in the costume and character 
he claimed as his own, 

I rarely visit New York, but whenever I have been 
there since Gilbert's exodus from the Boston Theatre, 
an old comedy at Wallack's has been the attraction, and 
as I bought my ticket I left my card for IVIr. Gilbert to 
assure him of one old Boston friend among the audience. 
Friend, I may say, and neighbor on the North Shore for 
more than forty years, and I grieve to think that I shall 
never again knock at the door of his pretty, old-fashioned 
cottage, nor talk and laugh over the plays and players of 
the past and present. 

Mr. Gilbert like many master-workmen was proud of 
his craft ; he looked with scorn upon these presumptuous, 
half-trained journey-men travelling through the country 
with their one play, like an automaton which can speak 
out " La, la, la, la." He had served a long apprentice- 
ship to his art here and in England, had seen all the 
good English and American actors for the past sixty 
years, and naturally resented the impertinent pretensions 



JOHN GIBBS GILBEBT 355 

of some self-styled sfcirs, and deplored the dissolution of 
the old stock companies. Not only did I sympathize 
with him in his fond recollections of the actors and 
singers of our j'outhful days, but the subtle law of 
heredity brought us unconsciously together. 

" Where did you get that beautiful old clawfooted 
table and that chest of drawers, so sharply carved and 
the wood almost as black as ebony?" 

" Those ? They came from my ancestor, Captain 
Henry Atkins." 

"Indeed! Well, Captain Henry Atkins and Henry 
Atkins, Jr., his son, were witnesses to the will of my 
grandfather's grandfather in 1760. Captain Henry 
Atkins and my ancestor, Thomas Lee, were among 
the founders, chief supporters, and ruling elders of 
what has been known in our day as the Old North, and 
among other evidences of the respect in which these old 
men were held by the church, you will find on the 
records : — 

« ' July 1749 — Voted, That Honorable Thomas Hutch- 
inson, Joseph White, Esquire, ]\Ir. Thomas Lee, Henry 
Atkins, Esquire, and Captain Daniel Pecker be desired 
to sit in the front as long as they think proper, and 
to take their seat next Sabbath.' " 

John Gilbert, like Charlotte Cushman, was a North 
Ender, born in the old Atkins house of several genera- 
tions in Richmond Street, and bred in that picturesque 
maritime quarter of the old town. Its inherent attrac- 
tions, and perhaps the feeling of heredity, used to draw 
me thither to gaze at my ancestor's house in North 
Bennett Street and his tomb on Copp's Hill, so that 



356 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

when we met we had two topics of never-failing interest 
— the theatre and the North End. Mr. Gilbert loved to 
relate, and I to listen to, his reminiscences of the 
characters and customs of his youthful days, and we 
felt it an additional bond of friendship that our ancestors 
had dwelt there as friends and neighbors. 

And he was a typical North Ender, — old-fashioned, 
frugal, sturdy, independent. Well did he apply to 
himself the lines he has so often, as Old Adam, recited : 

Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty ; 
For in my youth I never did apply 
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood ; 
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, 
Frosty, but kindly. 

He has set a life-long example to his brethren, which 
they would do well to follow, on and off the stage. I 
shall miss him sorely in both situations ; he was a 
pleasant neighbor, and the very last of all the long list 
of actors endeared to me by youthful associations. 

Henry Lee. 

I am aware that Mr. Murdoch, who played the lover 
charmingly to Ellen Tree and Fanny Jarman, etc., more 
than fifty years ago at the Tremont Theatre, and that Mr. 
Leman, one of the Tremont Stock, are both living, but 
they have been absent from these parts, and, I be- 
lieve, withdrawn from the stage many years. 

H. L. 



HENRY J. BIGELOW 

[Spoken at the Memorial Meeting of the Boston Society for Medical 
Improvement, Nov. 19, 1890] 

If Dr. Bigelow were alive, he and I might furnish en- 
tertainment for you by provoking reminiscences from 
each other, and dwelling humorously upon each other's 
peculiarities and misadventures ; but now that his voice 
is hushed, I am in danger of drawing a one-sided sketch 
when not corrected by his criticisms. Even if I succeed 
in setting before you fairly the image of my old play- 
fellow, it will be but the image of the boy, in whom 
were latent the traits and talents which in mature life 
" marked him extraordinary, not in the roll of common 
men." 

When I was just turned of three years, my father 
moved from a pleasant old garden house, which stood 
where now frowns the portico of the Tremont House, to 
one of those cosey little courts which were favorite re- 
treats for families on intimate terms with each other and 
a little aloof from the great world. On one side of Bed- 
ford Place, for so was the court named, was tlie house 
and garden of my uncle, Judge Jackson, then august, 
though only forty-five years old. On the other side all 
six houses were owned and occupied by our family and 
near of kin. Close by, in Summer Street, in the houses 



358 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

belonging to the First Church, dwelt my cousin, George 
Cabot, and Henry Bigelow. 

From that time until we separated for college, we 
formed an inseparable trio, to the great complacency of 
George's mother and aunt; for he was a very handsome 
boy — with red cheeks, brown eyes and hair, and a 
goodly figure — and we two pale, slender, white-haired 
boys set him off to advantage. We played together not 
only the usual recurring games, but also a few tricks of 
our own inventing, the remembrance of which amuses 
me more than the narrative would entertain you. 

While in our walks into the country for birds or 
flowers, or at plain carpenter's work, I could beat Bige- 
low ; on the other hand, swimming, or dancing, or at the 
gymnasium — wherever agihty was needed — he was 
immeasurably my superior. 

During our college life we roomed off the same entry 
in Hollis two years, and he inherited my room at my 
graduation. Circumstances — we were both busily occu- 
pied ; then he voyaged for health, I for business — sepa- 
rated us for a few years ; then we came together again 
in Paris and afterwards, until marriage and business en- 
grossments parted us. 

You want to know what tmits I observed in these 
years of youth and boyhood. In the first place he had a 
pleasant temper, or I should not have clung to him all 
these years. I say clung to him, for, while we clung to 
each other, I was rather more dependent than he, and 
that may have been true of all his companionsliips. 
Then, he was a most entertaining companion, not only 
because of his keen observation of men and things, but 



HENRY J. BIGELOW 359 

also, as well, because of his eccentricities — his inter- 
mittent activity and repose ; his relentless, exhaustive 
unravelling of some tangled skein ; or eager pursuit and 
abrupt abandonment of one hobby after another; his 
absorption in all he was doing, and consequent absent- 
mindedness ; his intense curiosity about matters, some 
intrinsically interesting, some uninteresting ; his secre- 
tiveness, or, to say the least, excessive wariness. These 
traits combined to make the doctor, as I early named 
him, a source of constant amusement to me and all his 
associates. We two were friends upon the principle of 
" like likes unlike." We were complementary to each 
other ; I saw the outside, he the inside ; I was an ob- 
server of persons, he of things. He was quite unob- 
servant of his surroundings ; took little notice of scenery 
or of wayfarers. While he studied the movements of 
a clock at a shop window, I, incapable of that achieve- 
ment, had memorized the passers-by. So we jogged 
along, each refreshed by the other's differences. 

When I was a young man, all our physicians were 
general practitioners ; now, you are all speciahsts. As 
I gaze around, I behold the faces of those who have 
exercised their skill on my eyes, my nose, my ears, my 
skin, my stomach. Well ! this is evolution ; you are all 
by nature, as well as by profession, specialists ; and my 
old friend and playmate was eminently a specialist — 
morally and mentiiUy a specialist. He was like a man 
looking through a spy-glass, who sees all within the field 
of vision more clearly than his neighbors not so provided, 
so that he was able to discover and analyze details invis- 
ible to them ; and the world has profited and will con- 



360 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

tinue to profit by his discernment and analysis. He was 
like a locomotive which surpasses other vehicles in 
power and speed, but is confined to its track. One 
cannot look for inconsistent advantages ; you cannot ex- 
pect a man with a glass to see what is without his field 
of vision, unless he and his spy-glass are both afilicted 
with diverging strabismus. The locomotive will haul 
you and your goods far and fast, but only wliile it keeps 
on its track ; it is no respecter of objects thereon, either 
animate or inanimate ; strollers must heed the warning, 
" look out for the engine." " Art is long and time is 
fleeting," and the man who, by concentrating liis mind 
upon some intricate problem, achieves its solution, and 
thereby saves his fellow men through all time from a 
suffering hitherto unrelieved, must be ranked high, not 
only in the list of great discoverers, but also in the ranks 
of benefactors of manlcind. Had he not been so occu- 
pied, he might have adorned society; he might have 
taken an active part in public enterprises and charities 
of the time ; he might have been more mindful of tlie 
joys and sorrows of those among whom he had been 
born and bred ; more surrounded by friends ; and when 
called away, he might have been missed from more 
circles, but he could not, in all probability, have invented 
and transmitted these great alleviations to his fellow men. 
Connected with this brilliancy of intellect, this shrewd 
discovery of the one grain of wheat in the bushel of 
chaff, this successful solution of mechanical difficulties 
which had bafiled all previous essayers — connected 
with, and no doubt consequent upon these evidences 
of superiority, and consequent also upon his isolation 



HENRY J. BIGELOW 361 

— there came to him a natural enough presumption of 
superiority in other fields which he had never traversed, 
and where others had been hard at work, urged by mo- 
tives which did not appeal to his nature. Here, beyond 
his rightful domain, he displayed both presumption and 
incredulity, — an incredulity as to the possibility of 
mainsprings which were not to be found in his machin- 
ery; and presumption of superiority, in all directions, 
based upon his acknowledged superiority in many direc- 
tions. This was a natural error of judgment; but it was 
an error sometimes of great consequence. This is why 
I said that, with all his genius, with all his accom- 
plishments, he was morally and mentally a specialist. 

There were two lovable traits which endeared Dr. 
Bigelow to all his patients, simple and gentle, — his 
untiring devotion and his reluctance to give pain. On 
this latter point I can add my testimony to that of more 
suffering martyrs. 

I accepted this invitation very reluctantly, anticipat- 
ing what I now realize, how imperfect, and therefore, 
how unfair, would be my sketch of my old friend. To 
me, up to our last meeting, he was always the old bosom 
crony of my boyhood and early manhood, reviving 
remembrances of the joys and griefs, the work and 
play, the frolics and rogueries and escapades of those 
days, which, while we talked, came back to us as vividly 
as yesterday. 

I close with a few words which, as President of 
the Association of Alumni, I had put together as a 
fitting introduction of Dr. Bigelow, who had been made 
Emeritus Professor of Surgery in the Harvard Medical 



362 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

School. As the doctor declined to appear, they were 
never spoken. 

" Old Dr. James Jackson, long the Nestor of his 
profession in Massachusetts, speaking of one of his 
pupils, then risen to eminence as a physician, a botanist 
and technologist, described him as one who. would find 
a gram of wheat in a bushel of chaff. 

" While we do not here inherit titles, we do inherit 
talents from our fathers, and the son of this remarkable 
father has risen to great eminence as a surgeon and 
a professor, as might have been safely predicted by any 
of his schoolboy and college comrades, whatever pro- 
fession he had selected. This eminence has been recog- 
nized by his Alma Mater this day. 

" Yet there is reason to fear that our Emeritus Pro- 
fessor of Surgery has, by his two great operations upon 
the stone and upon the hip-joint, incurred the anathema 
of our great Shakespeare, who thus imprecates such 
meddlers : 

Blest be the man that spares these stones, 
And cursed be he that moves my bones. " 



GEORGE PARTRIDGE BRADFORD 

All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. 

I WAS pleased to find in your columns an appreciative 
notice of this delightful old friend, the announcement of 
whose death gave me a double shock. 

The reflection that I should never again hear that 
voice with its ripple of cheerfulness, never again behold 
that face beaming with cordiality, mingled with my 
wonder that my seemingly unchanged friend had reached 
his eighty-third year. It was such a short time since 
he, then a young divinity student, was a welcome 
evening visitor at my father's house, nor has he since 
then grown old to my eyes. 

He was a worthy descendant of the good Pilgrim 
Governor, William Bradford, and just as he, in the days 
of his youth, sought counsel of Elder Brewster in their 
Sabbath walks from Scrooby to Clifton, so did his 
descendant walk and seek counsel of his wise elder, 
Emerson, on life mortal and immortal. As William 
Bradford found " oaks, pines, walnuts, beech, sassafras, 
vines," etc., on Clark's Island, where living men have 
seen only a few red cedars, so did his descendant espy a 
varied flora and fauna where to the common eye was 
barrenness and desolation. As he sowed he reaped, 
whether he had been wayfaring with eyes open to 



364 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

every feature of sky and hill and plain, to every humble 
wayside plant, to every rock that cropped out of the 
ground, finding 

Tongues in the trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything ; 

or whether he had come refreshed by converse with 
Emerson, or had just been released from his task as 
a teacher, he met you as a bearer of good tidings ; the 
message was never ended, he began as he had left off, 
for he was one of the meek who inherit the earth, he 
had lain down in green pastures, he had been led beside 
the still waters, his cup, which to the eyes of men 
seemed empty, was running over and he asked you 
to partake. 

He was as much more refreshing than other men as is 
the living water gushing from the rock than the same 
liquid conveyed in a conduit of men's devising. Like 
Emerson, he was so filled with the Holy Ghost, with 
love to God and man, that he diffused happiness where- 
ever he might go. The college anniversaries, no longer 
illumined by the light of his countenance, have lost 
part of their charm. 

Like Emerson, he was bred to the pulpit, and like 
him he quitted it, not because he had no message for 
his fellow men, for he was a great favorite with Pro- 
fessor Norton, who had one or two essays written by 
him while in the Divinity School published in the 
Christian Examiner ; and it was only his manner that 
the professor criticised, saying to him: "Your great 
defect seems to be an entire want of all those qualities 



GEORGE PARTRIDGE BRADFORD 365 

that go to make a good speaker." This criticism Brad- 
ford characteristically exaggerated, as if it applied to 
his matter as well as to his manner. The fact was 
that, like Emerson, he had not played with the boys in 
the street, but had been kept in the yard or on the shed 
by his sister, who in after times lamented it, and he was 
hopelessly shy. This shyness affected his conversation, 
which was a series of flashes or outbursts of eloquence, 
brought abruptly to a stop by hearing his own voice. 

From all we think we know of the life hereafter, the 
change from this world to the other must have been 
hardly perceptible to one who so dwelt here in the pres- 
ence of his Maker and in enjoyment of all his works. 

His life 
Was rounded with a sleep, no more. 



CHAELES DEVENS 

I HAVE a word or two to say about Charles Devens, 
with whom I have stood in friendly, familiar relations 
ever since my College days, when I was invited occa- 
sionally to his father's house in Cambridge. I have been 
wont to speak of him as " Sweet fortune's minion and 
her pride," and when one recounts the series of high 
positions, civil and military, to which he has been 
preferred, with never a break, from his earliest manhood 
to the day of his death, — my speech seems justified. 

Scarcely was he out of College and had begun his law 
practice in Franklin County when he was elected Briga- 
dier General of Mihtia ; soon afterwards he was chosen 
State Senator. He could not have been over thirty 
years old when he was made United States Marshal for 
the District of Massachusetts. 

In the war, starting out as Major, he became suc- 
cessively Colonel, Brigadier, then Brevet Major General 
of Volunteers, and Military Governor of South Carolina. 
Having returned home, he was appointed Judge of the 
Superior Court, and then of the Supreme Court; then 
taken by President Hayes as his Attorney General, and 
at the close of his administration instantly reappointed 
Judge of the Supreme Court. 

This opportune vacancy on the bench at the very 
moment when his time as United States Attorney 



CHARLES DEVENS 367 

General ended, did prompt me to remark to his kins- 
man that cousin Charles came down always upon his 
feet, and he agreed with me. 

His early promotion over his fellows of equal worth 
and talents is to be ascribed to his personal attributes, 
— his stature, his bright eyes, his mellifluous voice, 
his flowing speech, his genial and dignified deportment, 
which distinguished him in all companies, but more 
especially upon the small stage upon which he made his 
ddbut. While his general symmetry and suavity helped 
him in certain directions and to a certain extent, it 
disparaged him mth the fastidious and sceptical. The 
world is impatient and incredulous of perfection, the 
" totus teres atque rotundus " fades in the eye and 
provokes criticism rather than admiration, A mezzo- 
tint makes one long for the biting-in of the etching. 
Pope's Homer is so smooth that sense is lost in sound ; 
and so with persons. Dr. Channing's soft speech stung 
at least one sensitive person to profanity ; General 
Washington, as handed down by pen and pencil, was 
too smooth, too perfect ; it was only the revelation of 
his outburst of wrath at Monmouth, and of laughter 
over Old Put, that justified him to his countrymen. 
Our friend suffered in like manner, — his symmetry and 
suavity brought him under suspicion, caused him to be 
underrated intellectually and morally. But it was no 
padding, no veneering ; if ever a man could be a hero 
to his valet, General Devens might have been that man ; 
the nearer one came to him the higher he stood in one's 
regard. It was his thorough amiability, joined to his 
conscientious discharge of every duty assumed, which 



368 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

won for him the love and respect of those about him ; 
and secured for him the unbroken continuance of pro- 
motion first liazardedupon his extrinsic recommendations. 

Although as marshal he rendered up the slave under 
the cruel fugitive slave law, as a man he sought earnestly 
to purchase his freedom ; when the war, that touchstone 
of character, which converted lambs to lions, and some 
lions to lambs, broke out and the State was called upon 
for aid, the " suaviter in modo " was found to be com- 
bined in our friend with the "fortiter in re ; " he went 
at an hour's notice, filling the place of a recusant officer 
and serving faithfully and ably, in spite of repeated 
wounds, through all these haggard years, and for a 
year afterwards as Military Governor of South Carolina. 
When peace returned, he held the sword of justice as 
firmly as a ruder, blunter man. 

I sometimes rallied him upon his smooth and kindly 
relations with men whom I felt inclined to denounce, 
but I became convinced that this uniform courtesy and 
lenity credited his heart while it did not discredit his 
head; it was Christian charity. 

My old friend would not stand so high in my regard 
but for the unique exhibition of one memorable day 
when he had been invited to deliver the oration. Sum- 
moned betimes in the morning and carted about over an 
endless route for six or seven hours ; then, after tedious 
marshalling, forced to listen to successive and inordinate 
speeches by committee-men. Grand jMaster of Masons, 
Mayor, everybody but the selected speaker, the sun 
went down and darkness fell before the orator of the 
day was allowed to hold forth. For once, even his 



CHARLES DEVENS 369 

patience was exhausted ; he gave a few extracts from 
his oration by torchlight and withdrew. I was refreshed 
by his undisguised, righteous indignation at this pre- 
posterous, egotistic disregard of proportions. 

As to eloquence, how many better orations have been 
given than his on the centennial of the Battle of Bunker 
Hill, on the dedication of the Soldiers' Monument, 
on Grant, spoken at Gettysburg, not to mention his 
speech at the Harvard Commemoration as spokesman 
of the returned volunteers, his annual addresses while 
President of the Bunker Hill INIonument Association, 
his series of speeches at the Jubilee of Harvard College ? 
Upon that occasion he exercised his habit of infinite 
painstaking, — no other Alumnus would have performed 
the task of presiding officer so perfectl3\ 

A tender devotion and constancy characterized his 
domestic relations. A home of his own in the fullest 
sense of the word he never had ; his father's home 
was broken up upon the death of his mother and sister, 
when he was a young lawyer in Greenfield, a be- 
reavement the more poignant that they lost their lives 
preser\dng his ; his father lived to a great age and I can 
bear witness to the son's filial piety ; the love which 
husbands and fathers lavish upon their wives and 
children he shed upon scattered groups of relatives, a 
love ardently reciprocated. 

This tenderness of heart extended beyond his family 
circle. Breakfasting with him during the Grand Army 
Encampment last summer, he confessed that the sight 
of these veterans brought back so feelingly the setting 
forth for the war, that his tears would flow. 

24 



370 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

In familiar intercourse he was genial and entertaining ; 
a kindly humor enlivened his chat ; he told a story with 
the art of an old campaigner. 

A few words spoken by me elsewhere apply to him 
here : 

" He has been one of our most faithful members ; 
his stately and benign presence graced our meetings. 

"Here, as elsewhere, he diffused a spirit of chivalric 
courtesy by his dignified and cordial greetings, his 
temperate and kindly discourse. 

" To the respect inspired by his honorable pubhc ser- 
vice in peace and war was added the affection begotten 
of his unswerving loyalty to his friends, and his solici- 
tous consideration of all, young and old, far and near." 

When I heard of his death, there came to me the 
sense of the loss of a friend, and of the glory of a well- 
spent life. 



In the garden of the Samxel Cnhot hnij\r at Bmnl.-liiii 



PATRICK TRACY JACKSON 

Here lie the loving husband's dear remains, 
The tender father, and the gen'rous friend ; 
The pitying heart that felt for human woe ; 
The dauntless heart that fear'd no human pride. 

The death of Mr. Jackson will pass almost unheeded 
now, so much had this public-spirited citizen been re- 
tired from active life during the past few years. But 
his contemporaries cannot allow him to disappear from 
among them without recording their sense of his rare 
worth. 

At the funeral of Hon. Jonathan Jackson, the grand- 
father of the gentleman, Sir Henry Wotton's hymn, 
" How happy is he born or taught," was selected to 
be sung, as descriptive of his character; and it might 
well have been sung at the funeral of his grandson, for 
ever}^ verse, every line is equally applicable. Born to a 
great inheritance of wealth and reputation, he cheerfully 
renounced his chosen career, and, to succor those dear to 
him, prematurely thrust himself into a perilous position, 
where he shared responsibility but not authority, and 
wasted his best years, losing all but honor. 

There is nothing more fatal to success than a false 
start, and this early misdirection subjected Mr. Jackson 
to much unmerited loss and suffering. He did not reap 
the harvest usually accorded to the faithful, diligent, 



372 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

husbandman; he has not been, in the world's eye, 
successful. 

Sweety indeed, are the uses of adversity, when, as in 
this case, it develops courage, patience, magnanimity ; 
sweet are the uses of prosperity, when it serves only to 
warm, not bake the heart, and to render it more tender 
to the unfortunate, when it makes one a more and not 
less responsible steward of the Giver. 

Tried by prosperity and adversity, this high-spirited, 
meek-hearted man kept on the even tenor of his way, 
superior ahke to flattery and slights, equally zealous in 
the execution of high or humble tasks, prodigal of his 
services to his friends and the public, giving bountifully 
of his large or small store to those in need, grateful for 
kindness, patient of neglect, an example of Christian 
heroism. 

He has followed to the grave his friends and class- 
mates, Devens and Lowell. Had he preceded, they, who 
had witnessed his triumph over circumstance, would 
have offered their tribute, for they knew, none better 
than they, that the best poetry and heroism is that inter- 
woven with daily duties ; and they would have made 
manifest Pat Jackson's title to the love and esteem of 
all his classmates, as well as of all who had known him 
through the vicissitudes of a long life. 

H. L. 



GEORGE CHEYNE SHATTUCK 

Jesus saith unto him : feed my sheep. 

Dr. Shattuck, who has just passed away, was the son 
of his father. The elder doctor was not only the boun- 
tiful benefactor of Dartmouth and Harvard Colleges, the 
liberal contributor to many charities, but what is more 
rare and more admirable, the good Samaritan who, in 
his daily walks, refreshed his soul and warmed his heart 
discovering and reUeving the thirsty, the naked, or him 
who had fallen among thieves. He was equally charac- 
terized by the kindi-ed virtue of hospitality, his door 
was open, his table spread, for friends from far and near. 
Allston and Dana and kindred spirits were his constant 
guests, but the Harvard student from a far-off home, or 
the passing stranger, were also welcomed to his cheer. 
His son, who has just gone, inherited and developed the 
same traits. 

He founded the great school of St. Paul's, endowing it 
with land and money and aiding it with repeated gifts. 
For many years he has held a daily dispensary at his 
own charges, giving his professional advice to the needy ; 
he has lavished time and money upon the Church, finding 
his happiness in her daily services, her periodical con- 
ventions and clubs, and in unstinted hospitality to her 
clergy in proportion to their needs rather than to other 



374 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

considerations. His absorption in his church and school 
and dispensary begot no bigotry, no sanctimoniousness 
in him ; while it wafted him out of sight of his old asso- 
ciates, it never placed him out of touch with them ; his 
classmates at Round Hill, at Harvard, his old friends, 
were dear as ever. His liberality was equal to his 
loyalty ; he did not seek to proselytize ; religious and 
political creeds were no barriers to his esteem and affec- 
tion. Wendell Phillips and the most fanatical South- 
erner among his classmates clasped hands under his roof. 
Dr. Shattuck's hospitable habits and cathoHc spirit, 
and his extensive acquaintance at home and abroad, com- 
bined to make him a citizen of the world ; his social talents 
were remarkable, he was a good raconteur, had a keen 
perception of the humorous, and with characteristic 
friendUness devoted himself to the entertainment of his 
company. It is refreshing to behold a man bestowing 
his time and a large proportion of his substance upon 
the community, and maintaining a modesty and sim- 
plicity of living. This Dr. Shattuck did. We hardly 
know how any one could have led a more blameless, 
more useful, more amiable life. 

H. L. 



WALDO HIGGINSON 

1814-1894 

He could not frame a word unfit, 
An act unworthy to be doue. 

The disappearance of Mr. Higginson from our sight 
would have attracted more attention but for his virtual 
disappearance some years ago because of physical in- 
firmities, which have confined him at home save for 
locomotion in a Bath chair, or a short drive in a carriage. 
No one who watched him slowly dragging himself up 
the aisle, helped by his servant, at the funeral of his 
friend and classmate, Professor Torrey, could have 
recognized the manly figure and resolute stride of the 
first lieutenant of the Harvard Washington Corps. 

Contrary to promise, Waldo Higginson's active career 
was brought to an abrupt close forty years ago by a 
stroke of paralysis, a lightning stroke from a clear sky, 
which ever after imposed on him mental and physical 
constraints. " Cast down, but not destroyed," he cour- 
ageously set himself to such work as was left for him. 
His life henceforth was passed in his insurance office 
or his home, his outgoings and his incomings watched 
by one who, alarmed by the first unlooked-for collapse, 
guarded against the least strain. Even his beloved work 
as Overseer was deemed too agitating, and he reluct- 



876 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

antly withdrew after four years' service. Nothing but 
this vigilant watchfulness and his manly submission to 
these restrictions prolonged his life to the present day. 
Notwithstanding these limitations, and notwithstanding 
the barrier of reserve, he made himself more felt than 
many who roamed at large. With his numerous rela- 
tives, with his old friends, with his fellow-laborers for 
the College, with those who conferred with him on 
public affairs, with his associates in business, his word 
was weighty. When he was compelled to retire as 
Engineer and Superintendent of the Lowell Railroad, 
his associated brethren were moved to present him with 
a silver service ; they had penetrated the disguise of the 
modest, taciturn, dignified man, and had conceived for 
him an affectionate esteem. When after nearly forty 
years' service he resigned his insurance office, his brother 
underwriters wrote of "the value they had put upon 
his wise counsels, and of the profound and beneficent 
influence which he had unconsciously exerted," "that 
he had always brought fairness, trust and sincerity 
into every question, holding the even balance in their 
council." 

They who worked with him in raising funds and fix- 
ing upon plans for the Memorial Hall, learned to value 
his services. For several years he sat on the Board of 
Overseers of the College ; for a still longer term he 
served as Visitor to the Divinity School, and upon one 
occasion his minority report upon that institution won 
every vote, although the majority report was written by 
a distinguished clergyman, — a proof of his credit with 
the Board. 



WALDO HIGGIXSON 377 

" There was something finer in the man than anything 
he said. 

" This is that which we call Character — a reserved 
force, which acts directly by presence and without 
means. 

" It works with most energy in the smallest com- 
panies and in private relations. In all cases it is an 
extraordinary and incomputable agent. 

" Happy will that house be in which the relations are 
formed from character ; after the highest, and not after 
the lowest order ; the house in which character marries, 
and not confusion and a miscellany of unavoidable 
motives. Then shall marriage be a covenant to secure 
to either party the sweetness and honor of being a calm, 
continuing, inevitable, benefactor to the other. 

"No house, though it were the Tuileries or the 
Escurial, is good for anything without a master. And 
yet we are not gratified by this hospitality. Do you see 
the household obey an idea ? Do you see the man, — 
his form, genius, and aspiration, — in his economy ? " 

This character, which peered through the mask of re- 
serve and silence in his intercourse with his fellow men 
without, diffused a subtle charm within his home. It 
was the abode of neatness, order, tranquillity, simplicity, 
elegance, humanity, strict regulations and implicit obedi- 
ence — "a hall which shone with sincerity, brows ever 
tranquil, and a demeanor impossible to disconcert, whose 
inmates knew what they wanted, who did not ask your 
house how theirs should be kept." 

The self-complacency of early risers is proverbial; 
who knows but in this model household where there 



378 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

was a place for everything and everything in its place, 
where tasks were executed, bills paid, letters answered 
upon the instant, there may have crept in a conscious 
superiority over their procrastinating, floundering, fluc- 
tuating fellow creatures, — it would have been human. 
It was difficult to separate master and mistress, to say 
whether the government was an enlightened despotism, 
or a unanimous duumvirate ; the machinery was noise- 
less, the performance perfect, " each had become a calm, 
continuing, inevitable benefactor to the other," gliding 
into a more perfect union day by day. They were both 
modest, haters of dissimulation, scrupulously conscien- 
tious, loyal to friends, dutiful even to self-sacrifice, good 
judges of character, critical to fastidiousness, yet chari- 
table, benevolent to disinterestedness, romantic, chivalric, 
enthusiastic, tender. Each vied with the other in self- 
sacrifice, — the wife had more natural gaiety and elas- 
ticity, and raised the drooping spirits of her husband when 
threatened with helplessness and want; her romance, 
and what she deemed fidelity to household demands, 
verged upon quixotism, and while of " a manly mind," 
and a high spirit, I suspect that in most, if not all cases, 
she found ultimate relief in following her husband's 
decision. It was the widower's sad reflection that his 
wife had died prematurely, exhausted by household and 
social duties self -exacted ; but while she undoubtedly 
underwent undue fatigue, it seems more probable that 
her incessant, tremulous anxiety about her husband, 
from which none could relieve her, kept her heart over- 
throbbing until it suddenly ceased. The self -continuance 
of the household customs and service for eight years 



WALDO IIIGGINSON 379 

after her death is an evidence of the thorough discipline 
and of the weight of her character. 

The Higginson family history is not obscure, and it is 
interesting to trace the permanence or reappearance of 
some traits. 

The earhest person of the race now known, was the 
Widow Joane Higginson, mother of Rev. John, Vicar 
of Claybrooke for fift3'-two years, whose okl Norman 
church some of his American descendants have lately 
helped to restore, and grandmother of Rev. Francis, the 
emigrant, who graduated, like his father, at Jesus Col- 
lege, Cambridge, and, like his father, preached at Clay- 
brooke as well as at Leicester. It is something over 
three hundred years since this Widow Joane, dying 
before 1573, bequeathed £7 a year (equal to nearly 
£70 now) to the poor of Berkeswell, County Warwick, 
and this spirit of benevolence has distinguished many of 
her descendants of this and previous generations. 

A beautiful painting of " The Man of Ross," left at 
his door by an unknown friend or friends of 'Sir. Stephen 
Higginson (Waldo's father) upon the occasion of a 
reverse of fortune, was a delicate mode of conveying 
to him their grateful sense of his past beneficence 
and their sympathy with his present losses. 

Waldo Higginson was quite original; he differed 
from his father and family generally in his reserve, 
his deliberation, his consistency, his method, — qualities 
in common with the Storrows, judging by the repre- 
sentatives of that family ; — neither had he a fortune to 
distribute ; but it may justly be said that benevolence 
was the keynote of his character, the burden of his 



880 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

heart. The needs of others appealed to him; he was 
constantly studying how to aid kinsfolk, near or remote, 
as well as all others in want, not only with money 
spared from his modest income, but also by wise 
counsels and personal endeavors. Very close to his 
heart was the College, and he made to it several do- 
nations which might be called extravagant for his 
circumstances. 

His attachment to old friends was a delightful trait, 
and so long as Dr. Charles Ware lived, Waldo and 
John Holmes were each year his guests ; these old life- 
long cronies were kept in an almost hysterical state by 
John Holmes's humorous rehearsal of their boyish 
experiences or description of the old Cambridge 
worthies. 

Whether because he belonged to an historical family, 
or because he grew up in an ancient collegiate town, 
or whether it was an original trait, he was fond of 
reminiscences, of traditions, of genealogical researches. 
He and I so haunted the home of my grandfather's 
grandfather down at the North End, that at last the 
agitated proprietor issued forth and inquired as to our 
designs, evidently taking us for burglars ; and a witty 
cousin of mine, after listening to our intense conver- 
sation on these topics some fifty years ago, observed 
that " our talk reminded him of old negroes," so full 
was it of what Waldo, speaking of a brother antiquarian, 
called " delightful, good-for-nothing information." 

He was easily entertained, liked to be provoked to 
laughter, and with him a story rather gained by repeti- 
tion. We had made a journey together to the White 



WALDO HIGGINSON 381 

Mountains sixty years since, and there was no incident 
of that tour, no traits of travellers we encountered which 
did not furnish merriment all these years. He was very 
perceptive, and any foible or adventure of his own or his 
friends, capable of being turned to ridicule, regaled him. 
A fehcitous contrast between my wife and me, drawn 
by a shrewd Yankee neighbor of his, he took great 
delight in repeating, though by no means flattering 
to me. With still greater malignity he sat chuckling 
over some sarcastic comments of an old classmate upon 
my merits and demerits as Chief Marshal while I was in 
the thick of complications in Memorial Hall on Jubilee 
Day, and then with relish imparted them to me. Served 
up by this humorist the criticisms had an agreeable 
piquancy, but the fun we extracted from our oft-told 
tales was a Masonic mystery, revealed only to the 
initiated and not by me transmissible. 

The historian says of his ancestor. Rev. Francis, the 
emigrant, " Unlabored as is the composition of both his 
books, we find in them a delicate felicit}* of expression 
and a quiet, imaginative picturesqueness," and this 
might be affirmed of the conversation and of the briefest 
note of Waldo Higginson ; he had a rare " fehcity of 
expression, and a quiet, imaginative picturesqueness." 

One Commencement Day, when a Vice-President of 
dignified presence, sonorous voice and smooth oratory, 
had been suddenly substituted for the missing President, 
he exclaimed, " Thank God ! who always raises up 
for us figureheads when they are needed." 

It is a matter of regret that circumstances limited the 
number of listeners to his table talk, and still more that 



882 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" the whole country has not, by the press, enjoyed 
some of his composures,^^ as they did those of liis 
ancestor, Rev. John of Salem, for there were many 
subjects which he would have illustrated forcibly and 
felicitously. 

He was an ardent lover of his country ; had he been 
young and hale, he would, like others of his name, have 
felt impelled to active service in the Civil War; but 
failing of this, he might have written on mattei*s of 
public welfare, which so deeply interested him, as 
incisively as ever did Old Laco. 

He was and had been my mentor for sixty-two years ; 
from my Freshman year when I roomed in the " L " of 
his father's house at Cambridge alongside him, he has 
been my tender friend, my wise counsellor ; he has also 
been my taskmaster, and has required me to write 
occasional comments on persons or politics which 
interested him, and wliile he was inclined to lenity, 
he never paltered with the truth. Not long ago I 
submitted to him three obituary notices, for I never 
dared to print a line without liis criticism. Having 
heard the first he said, " That is good," — then after 
listening to the second came the sentence, "That will 
do," nor would all my remonstrances coax him to 
an}^ extenuation ; and this was a specimen of his un- 
deviating frankness, and, if need be, reproof. We were 
sitting together at the benefit promoted by me of an 
actress in whom I felt an interest. During one of the 

waits I said : " Mrs. is a good little woman, find 

she is a good actress ; still, there is something lacking, 
don't you observe it?" " No ! and if I did, I should not 



WALDO HIGGINSON 383 

speak of it." " Oh ! " I exclaimed to his wife, " Waldo 
is snubbing me," but he was naturally displeased at my 
unsympathetic criticism. 

Cotton Mather said of Rev. John of Salem, who lived 
to ninety-two years, that he had been " a rich and long 
blessing," and every one who had the luxury of inter- 
course with his descendant would say, Amen. 

The most convincing proof of his incorruptibility is 
that, although from his birth to his death, — in his 
father's house, in his own home, by his wife, then by his 
sister, then by his niece, who successively devoted 
themselves to him, — he was idolized, and those nearest 
to him and those under him at home or abroad were his 
most devout worshippers ; all this deference and solici- 
tude served but to enhance his dignity and consistency 
of character, and never to develop caprice or selfishness. 
They who, during his long invalidism, watched and 
helped, instead of complaining of weariness, declared 
themselves refreshed and elevated by contact with him. 
Nobody knows how much or how little he realized 
and suffered during his long last illness ; that he could 
not by hand or mouth communicate with those who 
watched over him was a distress to them and must have 
been to him. Let us hope that he dreamed and slept 
away those slow last hours of his dutiful life. 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP 

Eighty-five years ago the old town of Boston was 
not a sojourn, but a dwelling-place, year in and year out, 
from birth to death, from generation to generation. Its 
citizens not only lived in, but for, their town; on it 
were concentrated their affections, they observed all 
anniversaries, they participated in all solemnities and 
festivities, they discharged divers duties now delegated 
to paid substitutes. 

In my school and college days Mr. Winthrop was 
coming forward, and among the figures of the past none 
is more distinct than his, because of the part he played 
in all pageants, and because of his handsome face and 
figure, which made his part attractive. I admired him 
marching at the head of the Harvard Washington Corps ; 
later as captain of the Boston Light Infantry, famed for 
its spirit and for its series of handsome young officers ; 
later still in perfection as senior aide-de-camp succes- 
sively to three governors. These positions he owed to 
his name and to his external graces ; these were but the 
trappings ; he had that within which passeth show. 

While captain of the Harvard Washington Corps, he 
was chum of Charles Emerson, the most remarkable 
of the remarkable brothers, and he had the third oration 
at his graduation. 

While aide-de-camp, he was elected a member, and 
before his time Speaker, of the House of Representa- 



ROBERT C. WINTIIROP 385 

tives ; then Member of Congress, where he rapidly came 
to the front. 

While on the staff of Governor Everett, he was wont 
to attend the dinners of the Cadets, and to gratify us 
not only by his comely presence, but also by his graceful 
oratory, vying with that of his eloquent chief. A stately 
figure, a dignified manner, a mellifluous voice, gave 
effect to his words. 

After Mr. Everett, we have had no orator who has 
irradiated so many occasions, local and national, with 
historic research and sage reflections presented in clear 
and euphonious speech. 

I allude to three of these orations, not because of 
their relative superiority, but because they serve to 
illustrate : — his Bunker Hill oration, his power to rein- 
vest with interest a subject already exhaustively treated ; 
his oration at Yorktown, his skill in weaving as on a 
Brussels carpet loom the intricate web so as to assign to 
the many actors in that siege — French, British, and 
American — their places, and to set forth their character- 
istics, and yet not to impede the flow of the narrative ; 
the address on the Centennial of the Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, his fulness and readiness. Called upon in 
an exigency, with but twenty-four hours' notice, he 
gave an interesting review of the century's record, and 
discriminating eulogies on its most eminent members. 
It could not have been more complete, more finished, if 
he had taken a month instead of a day for preparation. 

But what repeated proofs of these qualities has he not 
given at the monthly meetings of this Society during 
the thirty years of his presidency ! A letter received, a 

25 



386 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

document unearthed, a lost member to lament, an anni- 
versary to commemorate, — each opportunity, offered or 
created, was improved by him. 

His learning, his extensive intercourse and correspond- 
ence with interesting men at home and abroad, stored 
in a tenacious memory ready for use, enabled him to in- 
vest the subject, whatever it might be, with interest, and 
each time to renew our admiration. 

Many of us can claim descent from the magistrates 
and clergy of the first generation ; but unless we bear 
their names, our claim is disputed, we are virtually 
disinherited, we are not identified with them. John 
Winthrop had many Hving descendants who had thus 
lost their inheritance. Those who were heirs of the 
name, as of the blood, had passed away from this vicinity. 
Mr. Winthrop had six brothers, whom some can remem- 
ber as handsome, stalwart men, but he outlived them 
all. So it came about that he was left the sole repre- 
sentative in Boston of the family in his generation, and 
his identity with his great ancestor was, as it were, 
thrust upon him. 

When he was born, the contour of the peninsula (for 
happily it was still a peninsula) had been preserved ; it 
was the Boston depicted by Emerson : — 

The rocky nook with hill-tops three 
Looked eastward from the farms, 
And twice each day the flowing sea 
Took Boston in its arms, 

a fascinating, semi-rural, sea-girt town, retaining many 
features of its old colonial days. The houses stood 



ROBERT C. WIXTHROP 387 

mostly apart in their gardens, some of them associated 
with historic names. 

Born in one of these old homes, the first objects which 
met his eyes as he was held to the window were the Old 
South Meeting House and its parsonage standing on the 
Governor's Green, the home of his ancestor, the wise 
and beneficent founder of the town and State. The 
contemplation of this ancestral ground, the sight of old 
houses which this ancestor had entered, family tradi- 
tions, the reading of Wintlirop's Journal, must have 
tended to associate the past with the present, and to 
impress upon him his birthright. 

If, as aide-de-camp, he rode beside the governor as he 
reviewed the troops on Boston Common, he must have 
recalled the day when the two regiments in the bay 
were mustered on that same Common — led, the one by 
his ancestor. Governor Winthrop, the other by the 
deputy, Governor Dudley, who was equally his ancestor 
— to perform their warlike exercises. 

He could not, as an officer of the Ancient and Honor- 
able Artillery, receive or resign his espontoon without 
remembering that it was his ancestor who had bestowed 
the charter and who had presided over these annual 
ceremonies. 

He could hardly attend a meeting of the INIassachu- 
setts Historical Society without hearing our first gov- 
ernor quoted or referred to. 

What a beautiful manifestation of filial piety was his 
editing and writing the " Life and Times of John Win- 
throp," at once a romance and a history, giving a fasci- 
nating picture of the life of the la^vyer of the Temple 



388 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

and the lord of the Manor of Groton, surrounded by 
attached friends and kindred ; and of his forsaking all 
this to " runne an hazard with them of an hard and 
meane condition," by agreeing " to pass the seas to in- 
habit and continue in New England ; " of the tender 
parting and happy reunion of the husband and wife, and 
of the multifarious cares and trials and achievements of 
the gentle, wise, magnanimous man and magistrate, dur- 
ing his nineteen years here. 

Mr. Winthrop was " given to hospitality ; " he received 
his friends, his friendly acquaintances, and his fellow- 
citizens on appropriate occasions with that nice gradation 
of manner of which he was master ; he entertained 
strangers of rank and distinction in the full sense of that 
word, and he leaves no successor with the inclination and 
the ability to take his place. 

The proud httle sea-girt town has sprawled out into a 
disjected city ; its picturesque profile and outline are 
gone ; the waves no more beat against the Neck, — there 
is no Neck ; the old James Bowdoin house was long ago 
wiped away, its acre of garden covered with buildings ; 
the English Puritans are displaced by men of strange 
speech and customs, and, bowed down by infirmities, 
the last of the Boston Winthrops of his generation has 
followed the long line of his ancestors from the first 
governor, and faded from our sight. 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 

{^Spoken at a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, held 
October 11, 1894] 

After the President's discriminating remarks and 
Dr. Everett's sympathetic verses, my only excuse for 
saying a few words is that my point of view is not that 
of a scholar, but of a friend and kinsman. 

Our common ancestor, Edward Jackson, of Harvard 
College, 1726, married Dorothy Quincy, whom Dr. 
Holmes has embalmed. He had two children ; the son 
was my grandfather, the daughter his grandmother. 
Always on famihar terms, for seventeen summers we 
have been neighbors at Beverly Farms, in closer com- 
munion, holding stated meetings every Sunday after 
church, — wliich, by the way, he invariably attended, 
whatever the creed or whoever the preacher. He will be 
missed from his accustomed seat in the old King's 
Chapel, which he has filled for over fifty years. At 
these weekly sessions discussion ranged far and wide. 
There was no assumption of superiority on his part, such 
as I have sometimes encountered from literary men ; but 
there was, on each side, an eagerness to talk which had 
to be regulated, after parliamentary usage, by the mis- 
tress of the house. An old gentleman, speaking of 
Judge Charles Jackson, the father of Mrs. Holmes, told 
me that when, as referee, he decided a case, both parties 



390 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

were satisfied, such was their confidence in his equity ; 
and his daughter presided over this court of appeal with 
like acquiescence. 

In this intimacy I traversed the opinions and con- 
victions, the sympathies and gentle antipathies, of my 
brilliant, discursive cousin, the Autocrat; observed his 
domestic habits and relations, and learned the rewards 
and penalties of his popularity. 

He was most happy in his marriage. The executive 
ability and unselfish devotion manifested by his wife, 
when at the head of the Boston Sanitary Commission 
during the Civil War, were lavished upon her family ; 
her delicate perceptions and quick sympathies made her 
a delightful companion and a competent critic of her 
husband's prose or poetry. It was pleasant to meet 
them in their daily walks, gaily chatting with each 
other or with a neighbor, or stooping to caress a little 
child. These daily walks have been persevered in to the 
end, in spite of solitude, partial blindness, and increas- 
ing infirmities ; and so have his kindly relations with 
neighbors, his playful and tender intercourse with 
children. 

I have had two sets of grandchildren dwelling near 
him, and I will venture to say that he never passed them 
without a pleasant word ; and he not only saluted them, 
but he noticed their traits. A neighbor told me that 
when Dr. Holmes dwelt in Charles Street, and passed 
daily through Cambridge Street to the Medical School, 
he was wont to stop on his way to speak to the school- 
children, to give them words to spell, to laugh over their 
blunders, and to reward them with pennies. He was 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 391 

blessed with a real gaiety of heart, — a quality too rare 
among us descendants of Puritans, — inherited, perhaps, 
from his Dutch ancestors. 

He had much mechanical ingenuity, — made several 
inventions, besides improving the stereoscope ; but in 
some business ways he was amusingly helpless, and, as I 
have occasion to know, very grateful for assistance. 

His kindness of heart was exercised, but not ex- 
hausted, by the bores who besieged him with visits and 
letters, — who showered upon him their essays to be read, 
their aspirations to be considered, and often rewarded his 
patient endurance and merciful judgments with an out- 
burst of ingratitude. His charity for these and other 
offences was habitual ; he was quite capable of receiving, 
but not of inflicting, wounds ; nor did he harbor resent- 
ments. 

He has been called vain, by himself and others ; but 
it was vanity of an amiable and childlike kind, — con- 
fessed, and so apologized for; not denied or disguised or 
justified. It was not made offensive by superciliousness, 
nor contemptible by unmanliness, nor malignant by envy. 
Had he visited Rotten Row, and gazed at the well-born, 
well-dressed, well-mounted equestrians, he would have 
exulted over their bright array, and not have growled 
out, as Carlyle did, " There is not one of them can do 
what I can do.*' He would not, like Moore, have abused 
his honest and generous publisher ; nor would he, like 
him, upon the loss of a child, have lain abed to revel in 
his grief, leaving his " dear Bessie," as Moore called his 
wife, to perform the last sad offices. He would not, — as 
did one author with whom I had formerly hved on terms 



392 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

of equality, but who afterwards acquired fame and riches, 
— have called upon me to mark him extraordinary, not in 
the roll of common men, by cutting off the coupons from 
his goodly pile of bonds, — a service not rendered to 
his four thousand fellow-customers. 

Lowell wrote a witty paper on "A certain Conde- 
scension in Foreigners ; " he might have followed it by 
" A certain Condescension in Literary Men." 

When I read the correspondence between Emerson 
and Carlyle, it struck me how much more and better 
they would have written had they been bound to some 
task every morning ; if manual, all the better. Emerson 
recognizes this in many passages : " The use of manual 
labor is one which never grows obsolete, and which is 
inapplicable to no person. . . . We must have a basis for 
our higher accomplishments, our delicate entertainments 
of poetry and philosophy, in the work of our hands. Not 
only health, but enterprise, is in the work." 

Fortunate for Charles Lamb was his enforced drud- 
gery " at the desk's dead wood." It was this routine that 
braced him for his congenial labors. After his long- 
coveted liberation, he ran and frisked about like a colt 
in a pasture, and then subsided ; the " unchartered free- 
dom " made him restless, but not productive. 

Fortunate for Dr. Holmes were liis practice and his lec- 
tures for thirty-five years. These gave him promptness, 
accountability, resolution, touch with the world. It was 
this commerce with the world that widened his observa- 
tions and his sympathy ; it was this which inclined him, 
it was this discipline which enabled him, to respond so 
constantly and so heartily to the appeal for occasions, — 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 393 

a well-performed service wliicli endeared him to the 
great public. 

The champagne, the effervescence, will be lacking 
at many a gathering now that he is gone ; he stands out 
from all other poets by his cheerful and hearty co-opera- 
tion. Who now can catch inspiration from the passing 
event, and express felicitously the feeling agitating every 
breast, as did our lost friend ? 

One more trait, and that a most amiable one, char- 
acterized him, — a remarkable magnanimity ; he gave an 
ungrudging tribute of praise to his brethren, he had " the 
most catholic receptivity for the genius of others." 

In short, he was very human in weakness and m 
strength ; love and good will he freely bestowed, and 
love and good will he craved in turn, and he received in 
full measure. 

" I do not know what special gifts have been granted 
or denied me, but this I know, — that I am like so many 
others of my fellow-creatures that when I smile I feel as 
if they must, when I cry I think their eyes fill ; and it 
always seems to me that when I am most truly myself, I 
come nearest to them, and am surest of being listened to 
by the brothers and sisters of the larger family into which 
I was born so long ago." 

lie sings no more on earth ; our vain desire 
Aches for the voice we loved so long to hear. 



WILLIAM MINOT 

1894 

All my life long I have beheld with most respect the man 
Who knew himself and knew the waj's before him, 
And from amongst them chose considerably, 
With a clear foresight, not a blindfold courage, 
And having chosen, with a steadfast mind 
Pursued his purpose. 

The city must be rich indeed which can afford to lose 
a man like William Minot. 

To his school and college-mates his lusty manhood 
while they were yet in the gristle, his prpwess in all ath- 
letic games, his addiction to field sports, marked him for 
outdoor life, a mighty hunter ; and his sufferings from a 
sedentary occupation went to confirm their diagnosis 
and to prove that Nature had been thwarted. 

Guided, not by his tastes, but by conscience, he became 
a diligent student, — an uphill road, wliieh he travelled so 
resolutely that soon after quitting college, while he was 
preparing to follow his hereditary profession of the law, 
he broke down utterly, and a voyage and travel in Europe 
were prescribed to save his life. 

His life was saved, but the robust health wliich he had 
enjoyed was much impaired, so that from this time forth 
nothing but a strict adherence to rule, a country life, 
and periodical withdrawals, cruising in his yacht, or 



WILLIAM MINOT 395 

following his natural vocation of sportsman, reinvigor- 
ated him and enabled him to bear the heavy responsi- 
bilities of his profession. 

How faithfully, how judiciously, how delicately all 
these duties have been discharged, how enormously they 
have been multiplied because of these admirable quali- 
ties, is in part known. 

In part known, because his time was given to his 
work ; and this over, he had no strength left for outside 
engagements, and so remained in comparative seclusion. 

Nor was this seclusion a constraint, for he had neither 
ambition for public employment, nor taste for general 
society. 

Like his revered father, he was conservative, indiffer- 
ent or averse to reforms, as casting a reflection upon the 
past with which his affections were intertwined. 

He loved old friends, old times, old manners, old books, 
old wine ; he might have said with the poet : — 

Times change, 
Years shift us up and down, but something sticks ; 
And for myself, there 's nothing as a man 
That I love more than what, a child, I loved. 

No matter how long the interval of separation, it took 
but an instant to resume the old relations, to nestle into 
the same place in his heart, to recall the old stories, to 
laugh over the old jokes. 

Like his father, he had a chivalric loyalty which bound 
him to his family, far and near, and to all heirs to his 
friendship, and notliing gave him keener delight than to 
play the host, or in any way to promote their happiness 
or to administer to their needs. 



/ 



896 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HEXRY LEE 

He had that chastity of honor which felt a stain like 
a wound, and which made the foundation for all the 
superstructure of gaiety and cordiahty with his friends. 

He was absolutely independent, so that he could dwell 
serenely among those whose opinions and ways were not 
his? ways and opinions, walking unswervingly in his own 
path, but resenting any intrusion, for he was capable of 
righteous indignation. 

His courage and cheerfulness maintained under pro- 
longed anxieties, successive bereavements, his tender de- 
votion to others, especially to the young, finding his 
alleviation in their enjoyment, his unfaltering walk 
through the valley of the shadow of death, closed and 
crowned his long and beneficent life. 

H. L. 



BENJAMIN EDDY MORSE 

[February 3, 1894] 

A GKOUP of relations, a number of old East Indian 
captains and merchants, a large number of fellow club- 
men, possibly in the crowd one or two Round Hillers, 
were drawn to the King's Chapel last week by their 
affection for an old comrade and kinsman. 

He who had passed away was not a public character ; 
there were no delegations, social, financial, or political ; 
it was an affectionate meeting and parting of friends. 

As I sat waiting for the funeral procession, I involun- 
tarily glanced up at the gallery wliere for over sixty 
years we had sat side by side in adjoining pews; and 
my memory conjured up a stalwart, handsome boy, 
kindly to us younger boys, playing in Otis Place, 
and then the going and coming of a supercargo ; I 
saw him just welcomed home, embrowned by his voy- 
age and cordially greeting his many friends, or proudly 
escorting his mother on the Mall, for we all lived in 
Boston, summer or winter. 

From those young days till now — as boy, as youth, 
as man — Ben Morse was the same, an obedient and de- 
voted son, a guardian brother, a loyal friend, a good 
Samaritan to those who had fallen among thieves, an 
honest man. 



398 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Resolute in pursuing his own straightforward course, 
he turned aside to interfere with no man's affairs, 
and would suffer no man to interfere with liis. 

Following the advice of the Apostle, he " studied to 
be quiet, and to do his own business." 

Retiring and unobtrusive, he invaded no man's prov- 
ince, encroached upon no man's rights, detracted from 
no man's character; his heart was tender, and over 
his friendly deed, as over the escapades of others, he 
threw a veil of secrecy, letting not his left hand know 
what his right hand was doing. 

"While his life was emphatically a life of duty, daily, 
wearing duty, faithfully performed, he had such a cheery 
way with him that one would infer that he was having 
a jolly time, and the fact that nobody in speaking of or 
to him ever got further than the first syllable of his 
name indicates his kindly, unassuming relation with all, 
young and old ; and they all gathered together to sig- 
nify by their presence how much they valued that kind- 
ness, and how conscious they were of their loss. 

H. L. 



EBENEZER R. HOAR 

[Spoken at a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, in 
Boston, on Thursday, February 14, 1895] 

" Behold there come seven years of great plenty 
throughout all the land of Egj^pt : and there shall arise 
after them seven years of famine." 

At our last meeting but one Dr. Ellis was speak- 
ing words of lament at the loss of JNIr. Winthrop; a 
month later, stunned by the news of his sudden death, 
we came together to mourn him. Tliis loss upon loss 
makes us poor indeed. 

A few years ago we had the pleasure of beholding 
among us Emerson, Deane, Lowell, Parkman, Holmes, 
"Winthrop, and Ellis, — these were our years of great 
plenty ; now the last of them has gone, and the years of 
famine have come upon us. When such men are 
withdrawn, the sadness of personal bereavement is 
followed by dismay over our deferred intentions, our 
lost opportunities. We can never know, we cannot 
estimate, we can only conjecture, what garnered secrets 
of the past have been buried with them, which might 
have been revealed had their lives been prolonged, or 
extorted by us had we been more vigilant. Now we 
vainly regret that we had not, like Joseph, gathered up 
the food of the seven years of plenty. For while there 



400 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

are many untiring scholars flashing their searchlights 
upon obscure passages in our history and illuminating 
them for us, they have never seen the unsullied, un- 
invaded New England pictured by Emerson in his 
historical discourse at Concord and in his memoir of 
Dr. Ezra Ripley, by Holmes and Lowell in divers 
places, and loved and studied and set before us by 
Winthrop and Deane and Ellis. They were the repre- 
sentatives of a vanished age ; in tlieir brief lifetime 
the transformation of centuries has been accomplished ; 
the peaceful, farming, maritime New England has passed 
away, only to be conjured up by realizing their descrip- 
tions, and shutting eyes and ears to the imwelcome 
intrusion of the bustling, heterogeneous present. 

Today we are called upon to grieve over the de- 
parture of a true Puritan. Leaving to others an es- 
timate of his rare ability, of his professional eminence, 
of his patriotic public service, I dwell on certain salient 
traits which have perhaps masked more fundamental 
elements of his character. 

Gazing into the grave of an old friend, one may get 
a blurred image; so I recur, on this occasion, to a 
portrait drawn by me twenty years ago, when he was 
candidate for the United States Senate : — 

At the Republican conference Tuesday evening, jNIr. 
Shortle of Provincetown said that no man who could 
only be approached by those within certain walks of life, 
who represented not the Republican party, but only 
a peculiar shade of blood, a few families on Beacon 
Street, would get his vote. Now, if Mr. Shortle knows 
Judge Hoar at all, even by hearsay, he must have been 



EBENEZER R. HOAR 401 

aware he was talking nonsense. As to Beacon Street, 
living there is a presumption of wealth, nothing more ; 
in some cases inherited, in most earned, — by some 
honestly, by others dishonestly, — and spent wisely 
or unwisely, frugally or lavishly, according to the disposi- 
tion of the holder. Of over four hundred householders 
only five live in the house in which they were born. 
The blood is pretty much what it is throughout Massa- 
chusetts, — that of the early settlers filtered through 
several generations of varied fortunes and occupations, 
of good and e\'il report. 

But whatever the merits or demerits of the dwellers 
in Beacon Street, who are only distinguished by that 
success in money-getting which Mr. Shortle and the 
majority of men strive for. Judge Hoar will be amused 
to learn that he is their representative. I have known 
him well for forty-two years, and I have often qualified 
my praise of him by charging him with an undue 
severity on city men and city ways, an almost aggressive 
simplicity and disregard of the little graces. 

If one wants to see Puritan principles carried into 
practice, let him visit Concord and witness the noble 
fi'ugality and quiet dignity of that small circle of highly 
endowed and highly educated men and women to which 
Judge Hoar belongs, and which is characterized by those 
virtues easy to admire, hard to practise, even by Mr. 
Shortle. 

After this lapse of time the record stands approved ; 
his undue severity on city men and city ways, his 
aggressive simplicity and disregard of the httle graces, 

26 



402 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

as well as his plain living and high thinking, have still 
characterized him. 

I once addressed him as the incarnation of the State 
of Massachusetts in general, and Middlesex County in 
particular, and so he was. 

Born in Concord, the wilderness town, consecrated 
by the piety and generosity of its well-born founder, 
Rev. Peter Bulkeley ; made picturesque by the 
brotherly reconciliation of Gen. Winthrop and stern old 
Dudley ; and illustrated, not only by the " shot heard 
round the world," but also by the character of its people, 
— by such citizens as the patriotic Chaplain Emerson; 
by good old Dr. Ripley, who ruled so long as parson 
and autocrat, one of the rearguard of the army of the 
Puritans; by Emerson and his brothers, and by Mrs. 
Samuel Ripley, the most learned, brilliant and modest 
woman of " Our First Century," who made it classic 
ground; and last, but not least, by his own father, 
Hon. Samuel Hoar, a modest, dignified, frugal, generous, 
wise man, whose word was law ; born and bred in this 
happy town, which " stints its expense in small matters, 
that it may spend freely on great duties," and so incul- 
cates frugality and public spirit ; listening year by year 
to the story of the 19th of April, or better still, to tlie 
reminiscences of the survivors of the fight, — no wonder 
that he imbibed the belief that Concord, not Boston, 
was the hub of the universe, and that what was not 
done in Concord was not worth doing. 

His faith in his town, his State, his church, his 
college, his class, his political party, was absolute; 
so profound were his convictions, so strong his attach- 



EBEXEZER R. HOAR 403 

ments, that he seemed to mistrust the sanity or sincerity 
of those who questioned their superiority. 

This claim, and his denunciations, private and public, 
of all dissenters, were calculated to affront those who 
were without the pale; the assumption was naturally 
offensive to those of other nativities, or to those who 
had conscientiously arrived at other conclusions on 
matters religious, social, or political, and was taken too 
literally by those who were devoid of a sense of humor, 
or not well acquainted with his complexities. For wliile 
it was difficult to trace the boundary line between his 
settled convictions and his cherished illusions, to dis- 
tinguish between the sallies of his wit and the utterances 
of his righteous indignation, those who had known him 
best allowed for the mixture. They smiled at his local 
claims ; they respected his rugged simplicity ; they 
allowed for his excess, or what they deemed his per- 
version, of loyalty to his political party, for a certain 
astigmatism in looking at his associates and his oppo- 
nents ; they pardoned asperities of which he seemed un- 
conscious, remembering the many tokens he had given of 
his deep underlying affection. I can give a specimen of 
this deep undercurrent, of this amiable inconsistency. 

Writing to me, whose political debasement lie had 
often deplored, about two common friends and kinsmen 
equally debased, he says : — 

" What I knew of G. leads me to think he deserved 
the eulogy you give. But I was very fond of W., who 
always was a trump ; and sickness and deprivation made 
him a hero, and as near a saint as it is good for anybody 
to be. 



404 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

" What a curious study it is to look back upon these 
finished lives, of men whom we have known from youth 
to old age, and how hard it is to believe that there can 
ever be any more like them ! " 

Again in another letter : — 

" I never expect to find anybody in this world who 
is always right ; indeed (with the possible exception of 
one whom modesty forbids me to mention), I have never 
yet found one. 

" And as I grow old, I am more and more disposed to 
content myself with the admirable qualities of my nu- 
merous and excellent friends, and am caring less for 
their short-comings." 

This was his creed : nobody had ever been so blessed 
in his home, his friends, his surroundings ; they were in- 
comparable, and his heart beat with gratitude and love. 
If he had ever said anything at variance with this senti- 
ment, why, like his neighbor, Mr. Emerson, he refused 
to be hampered by consistency. 

Like other descendants of Roger Sherman, his wit 
flashed as brilliantly and continuously as heat lightning 
on a summer's evening ; he said as many good things as 
Abraham Lincoln, and he shared his tenderness as well as 
his humor, so that the victims of his satire, the subjects 
of his condemnation, felt that while he condemned the 
sin, he loved the sinner. 

Following in the footsteps of his Roman father, he, 
seconded by his devoted wife, became the guide and ben- 
efactor of his historic birthplace ; his Spartan simplicity, 
his sage counsels, his witty reproofs, and watchful benevo- 
lence will long be cherished by his bereaved townsfolk. 



EBENEZER R. HOAR 405 

He was the guardian, the benefactor of his classmates ; 
his loyalty and bounty to them were unstinted ; he was 
the keystone which locked them all together. 

Next to or abreast with liis love of Concord was his 
love of his Alma Mater, manifested by his unvarying at- 
tendance at her festivities, by his thirty years' service as 
Fellow or Overseer, by donations on many occasions. 
While Treasurer of the Fund for Memorial Hall, I was 
struck with how he sought to express liis love to the 
College as well as his homage to her noble sons, by 
bringing, first his own subscription, then one for a son, 
by and by for another son ; and lately his gift to Eadcliffe 
College in the name of his ancestor, Joanna Hoar, and 
his legacy to the College proper, are further manifesta- 
tions of the same yearning. 

I rejoice that some of the alumni, touched by his af- 
fection for the College and its children, testified their 
appreciation years ago by requesting a portrait to be 
hung in some Harvard hall as a token to future genera- 
tions. 

Writing to him in November last, besides other things 
I said, — " As I near the precipice, I am getting scared," 
to which he replied, — 

Fear ends with death ; beyond 
I nothing see but God, 

and added these lines of Parnell's, — 

Stretch the glad "wing, and soar away 
To mingle with eternal day 1 

and with this feeling in his heart, if not on his lips, he 
welcomed death. 



406 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

I cannot better sum up his excellences than by re- 
quoting what I said in his lifetime : — 

If one wants to see Puritan principles carried into 
practice, let him visit Concord and witness the noble 
frugality and quiet dignity of that small circle of highly 
endowed and highly educated men and women to which 
Judge Hoar belongs, and which is characterized by those 
virtues easy to admire, hard to practise. 



J 



WILLIAM STORY BULLARD 

[August, 1897] 

Man's busy generations pass, 

And while we gaze their forms are gone. 

As an old man myself, I have had occasion to observe 
how soon men are forgotten by the public, their persons 
unrecognized, their names, once significant, known only 
to a rapidly contracting circle. 

Had William BuUard died twenty years ago, his loss 
would have been commemorated in bank parlors and by 
trustees of charitable institutions, and would have been 
deplored by the community at large. 

Left a penniless orphan at an early age, he was wel- 
comed into a hospitable home, placed at school, and then 
in the counting-room of an East India merchant, an 
enviable position in those days. Here he so commended 
himself to his employer that after a few years' appren- 
ticeship he was promoted to partnership, and before long 
left in sole direction of the business. 

An old merchant, a born merchant, was asked why he 
thought money was going to be tight. " Because I feel 
it in my bones " ; — and this might have been the speech 
of William BuUard, whose apprehension of coming con- 
tingencies was instinctive. This intuition, combined 
with his ardent pursuit of business, brought him repu- 
tation and wealth and the power to assist his three 



408 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

brothers, a purpose never remitted. No mercliant was 
more sought for as director of bank or insurance office, 
or assignee, wherever information was needed or saga- 
city exercised. 

Unfortunately health was not among the gifts be- 
stowed. During his apprenticeship he had been sent to 
a southern climate to ward off a lung attack, and he was 
in danger of degenerating from a man of nerve to a 
nervous man. 

It would have been well for him if he had relieved 
the monotony of his life and diverted his thoughts from 
business by availing himself of his friends' offers to in- 
troduce him to a larger circle, — if he had frequented con- 
certs and theatres, or had sought some other recreation. 
A constitutional shyness and sensitiveness aggravated 
by circumstances, and intellectual resources in study of 
a grave metaphysical character, kept him in too great 
seclusion. 

A most happy marriage brought him into a large circle 
of family and friends, opened to him the pleasures of 
country life, and developed in him a charming hospitality. 

He gradually retired from business, devoted much 
time to the management of charities, where his benevo- 
lence as well as his judgment was exercised, and in his 
summer home sought out and " succored, helped and 
comforted all who were in danger, necessity and tribu- 
lation," shunning as far as might be all pubhcity. 

Long will he be missed here, as elsewhere, by those 
whose wants he discovered and supplied so bountifull}^ 
that they were filled with gratitude, so secretly that they 
were spared observation. 



WILLIAM STORY BULLARD 409 

One graceful tribute to the two friends and guides of 
Lis youth, and with them one revered friend of his later 
manhood, in the form of Harvard scholarships, could not 
be concealed. It manifested his loyalty and tender- 
heartedness. 

For some years his health and strength have been 
impaired, his life confined to home, but he has lived to a 
ripe and happy old age. 

H. L. 



THEODORE LYMAN 

[September, 1897] 

Fell the bolt on the branching oak ; 
The rainbow of bis hope was broke ; 
No craven cry, no secret tear — 
He told no pang, he knew no fear ; 
His peace sublime his aspect kept, 
His purpose woke, his features slept ; 
And yet between the spasms of pain 
His genius beamed with joy again. 

It is finished, "the sly, slow hours" of martyrdom 
have crept along, the sufferer is released. There is thank- 
fulness for his liberation, gratitude for his example, 
grief for his loss. In the days of his health Theodore 
Lyman was sensible of his responsibilities. Proud of 
his inheritance, he sought to emulate his father's public 
spirit and benevolence, and served as president or trus- 
tee of several charities. He was for many years Fish 
Commissioner. He was loyal to his College. He was a 
large subscriber to Memorial Hall and worked on the 
building committee. His service as Overseer was only 
terminated by his illness. He was a devoted student of 
natural history, aiding Agassiz in the foundation and 
work of his museum, and was a member of sundry sci- 
entific societies. 

A patriot at heart, independent in thought and deed, 
he served in Congress when seriously handicapped by in- 



THEODORE LYMAN 411 

firmities, as long as patriotism was more prized in his 
district than partisanship. 

He belonged to a heroic generation and he was of the 
band doubly endeared to us by their gallant service in 
war and by their modest retirement after victory and 
peace, losing themselves in their old pursuits and among 
their old friends. 

In peace or war, Theodore Lyman was the most active 
and most cheery of men, and one of the most attractive, 
for nature had been lavish to him. Walking, riding, 
hunting, presiding at a banquet, partaking of social fes- 
tivities, he was a leader, the gayest of the gay, mirthful 
and a promoter of mirth. While thus full of health and 
happiness, he was suddenly warned. So well did he and 
those around him dissemble that few are aware that this 
knell sounded twenty-five years ago. 

How he received this awful summons, how he bore up 
against his increasing infirmities, is so exactly described 
in the following narrative of a similar trial similarly borne 
that I quote it as better than any attempt of mine : 

" His career, one of high promise, was cut short, and 
although he survived for a good many j-ears, he became 
paralyzed, rendered unfit for any active pursuit, and had, 
as we may say, to leave all hope behind him. This un- 
fortunate result was the more vividly brought before his 
friends, inasmuch as it was merely a physical result, his 
fine intellect remaining unimpaired to the last, so that he 
himself and his admirers were continually reminded of 
all that had been lost. 

" His misfortunes indeed brought out the innate no- 
bleness of a character which greatly endeared him to his 



412 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

friends, inspiring them with the deepest sympathy and 
the most affectionate respect. Flung down as he was 
from the pinnacle where he had been standing, he faced 
the melancholy reverses with a courageous cheerfulness 
and magnanimity which beforehand I should have 
thought impossible. There was no complaint uttered, 
no weakness or peevishness shown ; he accepted what 
was inevitable with manly frankness, and sought by cul- 
tivating pleasant intercourse with his friends, and fol- 
lowing up such intellectual pursuits as were still open to 
him, to ' deceive the burden of life,' and set an example 
to others of patience and self-control more easily admired 
than followed." 

Theodore Lyman had an honorable career as a soldier, 
but what was the noble service of brave men banded to- 
gether in tedious sieges or bloody encounter, compared 
to this solitary combat, day and night, week after week, 
month after month, year after year, with this menacing, 
creeping monster, coiling itself like the serpent around 
Laocoon and slowly stranghng its victim ? Those friends, 
ever increasing in number as the pathetic tale was told, 
who gazed in wonder at the sublime courage and patience 
and sweetness and even gaiety of heart of the sufferer, 
where now can they turn in their bereavement for such 
an ennobling example ? It is a consolation that all 
through these years he was environed with love, tender, 
watchful love, administering to every want, maintaining 
cheerfulness at any cost, bestowing never-failing sym- 
pathy. 

H. Li, 



SARAH PAINE CLEVELAND 

"Like shadows gliding o'er the plain," they pass. 
We read the daily list of the departed, but before the 
sun is set, we remember only that one of the names was 
familiar ; we cannot recall it. Still we scan the daily list 
with anxiety, for sooner or later we are sure to be 
startled by the name of one whose life had been so asso- 
ciated with ours, whose company had been so refreshing, 
whose counsel and sympathy had been so indispensable 
to us, that we are left destitute indeed. 

How many tears gushed forth, how many hearts ached 
at the announcement of the loss of Mrs. Cleveland ! It 
is now six weeks, but weeks will lengthen into months, 
months into years, before her name is forgotten or her 
loss supplied. 

To the 3'^oung, captivated by her cordial hospitahty, 

her ready sympathy, her unremitting interest in them, 

present or absent, and to crown all, her rapturous mirth 

over their adventures and mishaps, who saw her giving 

her life to others and rejoicing in the privilege, she 

seemed the incarnation of a Lady Bountiful, happy in 

health, in personal and pecuniary independence, and in 

the retrospect of an unclouded life. They who look back 

upon that life, so full of sorrow and disappointment, can 

only exclaim, 

Happy is one, 
That can translate the stubbornness of fortune 
Into so quiet and so sweet a style. 



414 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Among the pleasant memories of my boyhood are two 
or three afternoon parties at the Perkins's. The kindly, 
matronly Hannah, who was on the watch, took off and 
laid aside our wraps, and we were ushered up-stairs, 
there to be cordially welcomed by Sarah and the boys, 
and by their lovely mother, whose exquisite nicety and 
simplicity of costume and coiffure and gentle solicitude 
of manner likened her in my eyes to a fair Quaker. 
There were other boys and girls ; we remember only the 
friendly social Inches, who dwelt in Harris's Folly just 
over the way. After some hours of sports and games, 
we assembled around the tea-table to partake of the most 
delicious, old-fashioned children's feasts ; then, before we 
bade good-bye, we went through the entry door, which 
opened into grandmother's house, to see old Moose, 
who, rescued from cruel bondage in his youth, proved 
his gratitude by saving the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Per- 
kins in the slavery insurrection in St. Domingo, and was 
spending the evening of his days as befitted a servant of 
tried loyalty. This hospitable home was one of two 
semi-detached houses built by Mr. Perkins for himself 
and liis son, after he had given his former mansion to the 
Boston Athenaeum. 

The old recall with fond regret the beautiful semi- 
rural town of Boston, with its open spaces and shaded 
streets, one of the most attractive of which was Pearl 
Street, on the southern slope of Fort Hill, with its stately 
homes set in the midst of gardens and cooled by the 
breezes from the sea. I have sat in the rooms of the 
Athenseum in my summer college vacations and, as I 
read, heard as many orioles in the grounds of the Phillips 



SARAH PAINE CLEVELAND 415 

mansion opposite as now in Brookline. Small need 
had its inhabitants to quit their homes, but the Perkins 
family spent their summers at lovely Pine Bank, their 
grandfather's place on the borders of Jamaica Pond. 

These happy homes of three generations, full of sun- 
shine and security, were abruptly invaded, for at the age 
of ten years Mrs. Cleveland lost her father suddenly, 
and two years afterwards her mother married again and 
removed to a then remote State, so that, scarcely in her 
teens, she was left an orphan, mistress of herself and 
fortune, and burdened with the responsibility of the 
education of her three brothers. 

I slept, and dreamed that life was beauty, — 
I woke, and found that life was duty. 
Toil on, poor heart, unceasingly, 
And thou shalt find thy dream to be 
A truth, and noonday light to thee. 

It is perhaps impossible to convey an idea of the trials 
of her life from this time forth, without invading pri- 
vacy. Premature independence, which led to danger 
and subsequent unhappiness; premature responsibility, 
varied and at times grievous ; sickness, loneliness, be- 
reavements, might have soured or sapped her hfe, but 
they only developed the courage and disinterestedness 
which underlay the vivacious surface of her character. 

We all read about the good Samaritan, the high-priest, 
and the Levite. There are many descendants of the two 
last, decorous, well-regarded personages, who feel that 
they owe it to themselves, when they encounter trouble, 
to pass by on the other side, saying, " This is no concern 
of mine." Some of us are intermittent Samaritans ; we 



416 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

do occasionally have compassion on those in distress, we 
pour in oil and wine, we leave two pence with the host, 
and do it hoping that this will suffice and that we shall 
hear no more of the matter. But our friend whom we 
have lost not only came again to reimburse the host, but 
henceforth made the road to Jericho her favorite drive, 
lavishing upon others the fortune which could have pur- 
chased for her immunity from care and other indul- 
gences. Family, relatives, friends, strangers, all partook 
of her bounty; she was a prodigal; near or remote, 
absent or present, grateful or ungrateful, all were re- 
membered and cared for. Of course, like the sower in 
the parable, much of the seed fell on the rock, or among 
thorns, or by the wayside, but she was not discouraged. 

Benevolent people are sometimes, nay often, lugubri- 
ous, but our friend had inherited from her Irish grand- 
father, Captain Callahan, a merry heart, so that, just as 
the robins who strewed the leaves over the babes in the 
wood sang at their work, so her mingled tenderness and 
gaiety healed more wounded and cheered more sad 
hearts than even her bounty. 

She had, what is with us a rare gift, social genius ; her 
house was the home of good cheer. She was a natural 
leader, undaunted and energetic ; execution followed fast 
upon conception ; the confidence, which in her youth had 
impelled her to rash deeds, was now, " with more advised 
watch," exercised wisely in conducting the footsteps of 
others. "Whenever I visit her," said a young lady who 
had settled in Boston a stranger, " as I come away my 
eyes fill with tears of joy that I too have a home." 
" She was the most human person I ever knew, but I 



SARAH PAINE CLEVELAND 417 

never saw a human failing in her, and it was wonderful 
that anybody could be at once so at home on earth, and 
so fit for heaven." 

How can I bid farewell to my friend of three-score 
years and ten, how can I better close my memorial of 
her than with this tribute from the daughter of one of 
her oldest and dearest friends ; expressing, as it does, 
the charm of one whose sweet humanity lifted her above 
meaner things, and prompted her, chastened by trials, to 
bestow on others the happiness which had not been ful- 
filled to her, — 

Hold firmly by the human ties, 
But breathe iu heaveuly air. 



27 



MARTIN BRIMMER 

I framed his tongue to music, 
I armed his hand with skill, 
I moulded his face to beauty 
And his heart the throne of will. 

Teteue is not another man in Boston who wonld 
be so missed and so mourned as will be INIartin Brimmer. 

Most men are limited in their interests and their im- 
portance. The vestry, the charity bureau, the court- 
room, the caucus, the exchange, — one and only one of 
these is their theatre, and elsewhere they are unknown 
and unregarded. 

Martin Brimmer, freed from private cares, dedicated 
himself to the commonweal. He took his part in legis- 
lation, in charities, in education, in cultivation of art. 
He mingled in all public affairs, not only mingled, but led. 

Nature had made him prepossessing. His dignity, his 
deliberation, his reserve, were imposing, his gentle 
courtesy was winning ; and when at last he uttered a 
few pregnant words in a judicial tone, the majority of 
his hearers fancied that he was but expressing their 
sentiments, while the minority decided that opposition 
was vain. The fusion was complete. 

"What others effect by talent or by eloquence, this 
man accomplished by some magnetism." 



MARTIN BRIMMER 419 

" It lies in the man ; that is all anybody can tell you 
about it." 

" Ills mind has some new principle of order. Where 
he looks all things fly into their places." 

In all companies his presence was acceptable, in all 
councils his advice was desirable. To the College and 
the Museum of Fine Arts it was indispensable. Among 
these carefully selected men, Fellows and Trustees, 
there are some as shrewd, some as courteous, some as 
earnest, but what one in either Board combines to 
such a degree strong sense, unfailing tact and personal 
ascendancy ? 

We are all bereft; our public-spirited citizen, our 
wise counsellor, our bountiful benefactor, our charming 
companion, our hospitable host, our faithful friend, has 
been taken from us. 



SPEECH ON DEATH OF MR. WM. PERKINS 

[Spoken before the Trustees of the Provident Institution for Savings 
for Seamen and Others in the Town of Boston] 

Mr. President: — 

Inasmuch as I am an old friend of Mr. Perkins, and 
he was mine, for he was wont to address me " my 
friend," it is natural that I should make a few remarks 
before passing these resolutions. 

It is close upon fifty years since I made Mr. Perkins's 
acquaintance. The firm of which I was a member was 
engaged in the East India and South American trades, 
and we had several joint adventures to Brazil. The 
satisfactory business intercourse drew me into relations 
of friendship, made closer by my after-association with 
him as Director of the Boston Port Society and as mem- 
ber of our Board of Investment, where I served with him 
for a while. My affection led me sometimes to remon- 
strate with him upon his disproportionate gratuitous 
services to individuals and institutions, and to comment 
upon his course of life, until he got to fear that I should 
write his obituary, and to expostulate ; whereupon I 
always replied: "I certainly shall, and it will be 
headed, ' Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is 
no guile.' " 



SrEECII ox DEATH OF WM. PERKINS 421 

Well, our friend has stolen away as quietly as he 
was wont to glide in among us, and my promise made in 
jest is to be fulfilled in earnest. 

Two thoughts are uppermost in my mind : the pecu- 
liar character of Mr. Perkins's gifts, and the analogous 
character of this Institution, each an incessant and wide- 
spread charity, so veiled from the public eye that the 
drudgery involved and the benefit conferred are both 
undervalued. 

Mv. President, if your pocket was full of pennies, 
5'ou might either shower them from your window upon 
the crowd below, or, mingling with them, bestow your 
alms from time to time as you saw occasion. One way 
would be the more easy and conspicuous, the other more 
laborious and useful. 

There is no place where a few words could be more 
fitly spoken than in this old Provident Institution, to 
which he gave so much of his time and sympathy, this 
old charity founded by a few public-spirited citizens 
seventy-one years ago in response to an appeal from 
good Bishop Cheverus in behalf of his poor flock, whose 
petty savings were being wasted for want of a place of 
deposit. 

Established in the face of much ridicule and in- 
credulity, the steady growth of this old Institution and 
the propagation of the system through the length and 
breadth of the land attest the benefit conferred upon 
the othermse helpless wage-earners, while the history of 
its management is a memorial of the wisdom and fidelity 
of its Trustees. 



422 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

Stone by stone, layer by layer, throiigli these three- 
score and eleven years, this Institution, hallowed by the 
prayers of the saintly bishop and by the pious labors of 
good men, has grown to be a monument of the disin- 
terestedness of its founders and of their successors to the 
present day. 

And who of that long list of faithful workers has laid 
more of those stones than the modest, dutiful, constant 
man, who for forty -four years has given so lavishly of his 
time and his thoughts to its conduct. 

He has served in every capacity, from member of the 
corporation to president ; and, most of all, we have had 
the benefit of his unremitting attendance on the board 
of investment for twenty-six years, where his unceasing 
vigilance, his wide experience, his perfect independence 
were most valuable. The quality and quantity of that 
"work can only be fully appreciated by those who have par- 
ticipated in it. We are called upon to recognize his 
devotion to this charity" but tlie seniors present are well 
aware of his equal devotion to many more like institu- 
tions. In fact, I have often felt, as I said before, that 
our friend was too prodigal of his unpaid time. Time 
is money, and who can compute the fortune he would 
have accumulated and enjoyed, had he devoted to his own 
affairs the time spent in the service of others. Boston 
can show a long list of men who have, by close attention 
to business, built up fortunes, fractions of which they 
have bestowed upon the public. These gifts in the form 
of money and in a lump sum are obvious, and these 
givers have and should have their reward; but the 



SPEECH ON DEATH OF WM. PERKINS 423 

community sometimes fails to recognize the far greater 
and more precious benefactions of those men, who, dis- 
daining tliought of self, devote their time to the Avelfare 
of their fellow men. It is patriotic to send a substitute 
to the war, but one can hardly claim a hero's reward 
because of his substitute's exploits. The gift of money 
may, and sometimes does, represent self-denial, sacrifice, 
but is more often merely the bounty of the wealthy, and, 
while more conspicuous, cannot be compared to the gift 
of time and what that includes of personal service ; — 
this is heroic, this is twice blessed — " It blesseth him 
that gives and him that takes." 

Such a benefactor was "William Perkins, and we place 
him, we have always placed him, in the front rank. 
Just a week ago, driving in from Brookline, I discerned 
him creeping into the Beacon Street Mall. He looked 
to me more bent, more wan, more tired than ever, 
and pointing him out to my companion, I said, " There 
goes all that is left of William Perkins." So we cannot 
wish him back ; his toils began too early and were per- 
haps too severe. I always fancied that the yoke had 
bowed his neck, and, to a degree, depressed his spirit, for 
the apprenticeship of those days was not ouly strict, but 
harsh, and sometimes galling to a sensitive, high-spirited 
boy. I always felt that he had never had a play-day, and 
that in some respects his part in life was a sad one. 
Perhaps my sympathies were uncalled for ; however that 
may be, they are all now needed for this and other 
institutions which have lost his help, for tliis community 
which has lost his example, for his sole surviving child 
who sits bereft of brothers, mother, and father. We must 



424 MEMOIR OF COLONEL HENRY LEE 

all be thankful that he passed away so quickly, so peace- 
fully, while yet in the full possession of his faculties. 

O good old man I How well in thee appears 
The constant service of the antique world, 
When service sweat for duty, not for meed I 



INDEX 



INDEX 



AnnoTT, Jere, in private the- 
atricals, 27, 30-32. 

Abbott, Miss, 27. 

" Absolute, Sir Anthony," played 
by Mr. Lee, 21. 

Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
38.5, 

Academy of Music, 34G. 

Adam, Jliss H. A., 27, 28, 30. 

Adams, Charles Francis, 99, 177, 
229. 

Adams, Charles Francis, the 
younger, on Latin in the Har- 
vard Catalogue, 132. 

Adams, John, 181, 190, 191, 20^, 
210, 267, 274. 

" Advertiser". See " Boston Dailij 
Advertiser." 

Agassiz, Alexander, 17, 1G7, 410. 

Agassiz, Mrs. Alexander, 32. 

Agassiz, Mrs. Louis, 22, 23, 124. 

A Idle Gap, battle at, 05. 

" American Architect," 262. 

Ames family, 4. 

Amory, Charles, 252. 

Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
Company, Lee's reminiscences 
of, 84-89, 168,387. 

Andrew, John A., Governor of 
JLissachnsetts, 53,59, 61, 109, 120, 
266; appoints Lee Colonel of 
staff, 54-5G ; presentation of the 
nmskets, 57, 58 ; Pearson's Life 



of, 61, 76 ; his selection of offi- 
cers, 62, 63 ; his correspondence, 
73 ; difficulty with Butler about 
regiments, 74-76 ; letters from 
Lee to, 77-78, 81, 82 ; commissions 
Lee to write a history of tlie 
militia, 90 ; misses support of 
Wendell Phillips, 97 ; his feeling 
towards the Whig (Hepnblican) 
party, 115; Lee's defence of, 
177, 178; Lee's "Personal 
Reminiscences of," 227-261 ; his 
preparation for war, 228-333; 
his task of organization, 239- 
261 ; his effort to ])reserve the 
Hancock house, 264 ; his as- 
sociation witii the State House, 
270, 271 ; Lee's appreciation of, 
291, 292. 

Andrew, John F., member of 
Congress, 108. 

Andrews, General, 230. 

Anti-Corn-Law League, 5. 

Antietam, battle of, 66. 

Appleton, Nathan, 5. 

Argyle, Duke of, 282. 

Atkins, Henry, 355. 

Atkins, Henry, Jr., 355. 

Atkins, Katherine, 345. 

" Atlantic Monthly," Lee's article 
on Mrs. Kemble in, 171 ; Mrs. 
Kemhle's " ( )ld Woman's Gos- 
sip " in, 314. 



428 



INDEX 



Back Bat, Boston, 187. 

Balch, Fraucis V., characterization 
of, 167. 

Ball's Bluff, engagement of, 64, 
65, 76, 245. 

Banks, Gen. N. P., censured by 
Lee, 83. 

Barber, Dr., instructor at Harvard 
College, 1.3. 

Barrett, Mrs., the actress, 299. 

Bartlett, Sidney, 108. 

Bartlett, Gen. William Francis, 
presentation of his bust iu Me- 
morial Hall, 130. 

Bath, England, 283. 

Baxter, Captain, 288. 

Bayley, Samuel K., 290. 

Beard, Alanson W., condemned by 
Lee, 103, 117. 

Bell, Mrs. Joseph (Helen Choate), 
160. 

Bell Alley, widening of, 285. 

Beliingham, Governor Richard, 264. 

Belmont Dramatic Club, 23. 

Berkesweli, England, 379. 

Berwick, Maine, 186. 

Beverly, Mass., 5, 9. 

Beverly Farms, Mass., 34, 103, 160, 
191, 192, 389. 

Bigelow, George Tyler, 84, 288. 

Bigelow, Henry J., Lee's obituary, 
355-362. 

Bigelow, Miss, 28. 

Blaine, James G., Lee's censures 
upon, 103, 105, 107, 116. 

Blair, Francis P. (senior), 238. 

Blair, Montgomery, 177. 

Blnke, tiio actor, 353. 

Blake, G. B., Jr., in private theat- 
ricals, 28, 29, 30. 

Blanchard, Senator, 265. 

Blunt's " Scripture Characters," 
317. 

" Bob Acres," Joseph Jefferson in 
part of, 38. 

Boit, E. D., Jr., in private theat- 
ricals, 27, 28, 29, 32. 



Boit, Mrs. E. D., Jr., in private 
tiieatricals, 29, 31. 

" Bombaetes Furioso," 23. 

Bonnat, the artist, 51. 

Boston, 5, 7, 9, 14, 21, 41, 60, 61, 79, 
93, 96, 105, 115, 148, 151, 153, 
157, 161, 175, 178, 180, 184, 186- 
187, 189, 190, 198, 209, 222, 263, 
280, 298, 305, 352, 384, 386, 388, 
414. 

" Boston Almanac," 287. 

Boston Amateur Dramatic Club, 
28, 29, 30, 31. 

Boston AtlieniEum, 414. 

Bost(m Brigade Band, Lee's sketch 
of, 168, KO, 212. 

Boston Common, 265 ; attempt of 
West End Street Railway Com- 
pany to use, 188, 189. 

" Boston Daily Advertiser," 58, 
78, 103, 104, 100, 230, 331, 338, 
344. 

"Boston Daily Evening Trans- 
cript," Lee's letter on Labor Day 
parade printed in, 171-174. 

Boston Lancers, 78, 79, 81, 388. 

Boston Latin School, 136. 

Boston Light Infantry, 288, 384, 

Boston Museum, 41. 

Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 419. 

Boston Port Society, 227, 420. 

"Boston Post," 56, 103, 231, 259. 

"Boston Report," 5, 114. 

Boston Society for Medical Im- 
provement, 357. 

Boston Theatre, construction of, 
213, 214; John Gilbert at, 352, 
354. 

Boston Vohmteer Fire Depart- 
ment, in Broad St. riot, 288. 

Boutwell, George S., Governor f^f 
Massachusetts, 238; disliked by 
Lee, 114. 

Bowditch, Edward, in private the- 
atricals, 27, 28. 

Bowditch, E. Francis, in private 
theatricals, 27, 29, 30. 



INDEX 



429 



Bowditch, Vincent T., letter to Leo 
about Salvini dinner, 45. 

IJowen, Prof. Francis, remark 
about Lee, 122. 

" Box and Cox," 23. 

Boyd, Gen. Jolin P., 278. 

Boylston, Susannah, 190, 2C7. 

Boylston, Zabdiel, introducer of 
inoculation, 291. 

Boys' Asylum, 264. 

Brackett, J. Q. A., Governor of 
Mas.sachusett.s, 116. 

I^radford, George Partridge, obit- 
uary, 36.'i-.364. 

Bradford, William, 363. 

Brudstreet, Simon, 4. 

Brainan, Jarvis, 290. 

Brigade Band. See Boston Brigade 
Bdud. 

" Brigands of Lodi," 28. 

Briglinm, Colonel, 252. 

Brimmer, Martin, characterization 
of, 107 ; uijituary, 418, 419. 

Broad Street liiot, Lee's paper on, 
287-290. 

Brookline, 22, 2-3, 51 ; Lee's estate 
in, 190-192, 207. 

Brooks, Philli])S, 111, 128, 317; 
prayer at the Harvard Com- 
memoration Celebration, 123; ou 
compulsory attendance at prayers, 
133; characterization of, 167. 

Bulkeley, Uev. Peter, 402. 

Browne, Col. Albert G., private 
secretary of Gov. Andrew, 253. 

Browning, Mrs., 308. 

Buchanan, James, 229, 231. 

Bull Run, battle of, 256. 

Billiard, William Story, partner of 
Lee, 15 ; obituary, 497-409. 

Bunker Hill, sentiment for, 256, 
271; the locality, 284; Gen. 
Devens' oration at, 389. 

Burditt, the band-master, 213. 

Burgoyne, Sir John, Lieuteuant- 
General, 182. 

Butler, Benjamin F., Governor of 



^rasgachusetts, 100, 102, 105, 120, 
177, 2.'i0 ; corrected by Lee, 58, 
59 ; clash with Andrew, 74-76 ; 
Lee's opinion of, 83 ; as a public 
man, 95 ; Lee's criticism of, 115 ; 
his military career, 246. 

Butler, Pierce, 301. 

"Butler's Own Book," 76. 

Cabot, Caroline, 25. 

Cabot, Charles, 66. 

Cabot, Edward C, 23, 24, 26, 32; 
Lieutenant-Colonel, 70; architect 
of Boston theatre, 213. 

Cabot, Elizabeth. 5. 

Cabot, Elizabeth Perkins. See Lee, 
Mrs. Henry. 

Cabot, George, 5. 

Cabot, George (the j^ounger), 358. 

Cabot, J. Eiliot, 24, 34 ; character- 
ization of, 166. 

Cabot, Mrs. J. Elliot, 34. 

Cabot, Julia. See Wilde, Mrs. 
George C. 

Cabot, Samuel, 22, 50. 

Cabot, Walter, in private theat- 
ricals, 24, 25. 

Cabot family, 4, 9, 53. 

Cadet Band, 169 ; uniform of, 170. 

Cadets, First Corps of, anecdote of, 
76. See also Independent Corps 
of Cadets. 

Calcutta, 5. 

Callahan, Captain, 416. 

Calumet & Uecla mine, 11. 

Cambridge, Mass., 6, 15, 366, 382. 

Cameron, Simon, Secretary of 
War, 238. 

Carlyle, Thomas, 392. 

Carr, Sir Kobert, 273. 

Cary, Elizabeth. See Agassiz, 
Mrs. Lnuis. 

Gary, Fanny. See Cunningham, 
Mrs. Edward. 

Cary, Richard, in private theat- 
ricals, 23 ; death at Cedar Moun- 
tain, 6G. 



480 



INDEX 



Carv, Miss Sarah, in private 

theatricals, 23, 25. 
Gary, Thomas, in private theat- 
ricals, 23, 25. 
" Cat Changed into a "VYoraan," 30. 
Cedar Mountain, battle of, 66, 330 ; 

Banks at, 83. 
Chandler, Tarker C, 196. 
Chanuing, William Ellery, D.D., 

204, 205, 206, 316, 367. 
Chapman, Miss Mary B., 27. 
Charles River Embankment, Lee's 

views on, 194. 
Charleston, 68, 114. 
Charnock, Elizabeth, 4. 
Chicago, 78, 81. 
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 

Railroad, 17. 
Child, Mrs., 278. 
Childs, Nathaniel, 31. 
Choate, Rufus, 160. 
Christ Church, 274, 281. 
" Christian Examiner," 364. 
Church, Dr. Benjamin, 274. 
City Guards, 170, 288. 
Civil Service Reform, 121. 
Clark, Elizalteth, 281. 
Clark, Lemuel, 169. 
Clark, Sarah, 282. 
Clark, William, 279, 282. 
Clark house, the, 277, 279-281. 
Clark S([uare. See North Square. 
Clarke, .lames Freeman, character- 
ization of, 166. 
Clark's Lsland, 363. 
Clayhrooke, England, 379. 
Cleveland, Grover, 113, 122. 
Cleveland, Sarah Paine, obituary, 

413-417. 
Clevciiger, Miss Sarah, 24. 
Clifford, G(;venior, 238. 
Codmaii, Col. Charles R., in politics, 
108. 

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 110. 

Collpg3 rebellions at Harvard, 
12-15, 137. 

Colman, James F., 139. 



Columbia Street (Boston), 7. 
Couibe, Mrs. George, 306. 
Comer, Thomas, musician, 169. 
" Commemoration Ode," Lowell's, 

123. 
Common Street (Boston), 8. 
Concord, Mass., 400, 401, 402, 406. 

Cook, , excoriated by Lee, 

264, 265, 267-269. 
Copp's Hill, Boston, 4, 274, 276, 

281. 
Coquelin, Bc'noit Constant, the 

Freuch actor, 44, 47, 48. 
Cotting, Charles U., 129. 
Cotton, Rev. .John, 4, 264. 
" Country of the Tointed Firs," by 

Miss Jewett, 188. 
Covont Garden, 295, 300, 320. 
Cromwell, Henry, in connection 
with Sir Harry Frankland and 
Agnes Surriage, 283-285. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 282. 
Crowninshield, Francis B., services 

in the Civil War, 237. 
Cummings, militiaman, 290. 
Cunningham, Mrs. Edward, 25. 
Curtis, Mrs. Charles P., 24. 
Gushing, Robert M., in private the- 
atricals, 23, 27, 29-32. 
Gushing, Thomas, 139. 
Gushing, Thomas F., in private thc- 

atrical-S, 23, 28, 31, 32. 
Gushman, Charlotte, 36, 353, 355. 

Darnev, Charles, 64. 

Dabney, Edward, 64. 

Dal)ney, F., 27. 

Dale, William J., Surgeon-General 
of Massachusetts in Civil War 
252. 

" Damon and Pythias," 28. 

Dana, Richard H., a Free-Soiler, 
60; characterization of, 166. 

Dartmouth College, 373. 

Davis, Jofforson, 229. 

Davis, John, Governor of Mas- 
sachusetts, 84. 



INDEX 



431 



Davis, John Brazer, 87, 

Davis, Mrs., 25. 

Davi.s, Ihoinas, 289. 

Democratic party, concerning the, 
54, 67, 103, 108, 112, 113. 

Dennis, Louis, 289. 

Devens, Charles, obituary, 366-370; 
speech on Gen. Grant, 369. 

Donaldson, Thonias, 139. 

])oiine, AVilliam, 308. 

Doogue, William, Boston city for- 
ester, 194, 195. 

Dorr, Susan, 25. 

Downes, of Cadet band, 169. 

Downes, Commodore, 275. 

Dudley, Thomas, colonial gov- 
ernor, 4. 

Dunbar, Peter, 289. 

Dunkin, Cliristopher, causes rebel- 
lion in Harvard, 13, 14. 

Dwigbt, Howard, 329 ; in private 
tlieatricals, 33 ; in Civil War, 66. 

Dwight, Wilder, 329 ; in Civil War, 
66. 

Dwight, William, 192. 

Eari.e, J.vmes Tilghman, 11, 12. 

Edinburgh, 151, 183. 

Eliot, Cliarles, 345. 

Eliot, Charles W., president of Har- 
vard University, 112, 116, 117, 
118; Lee not in sympathy with, 
125, 126 ; Lee gives credit for 
Memorial Hall to, 130; in Over- 
seei's' meetings, 133; Lee's aj> 
preciation of, 134. 

Eliot, John, 184, 185. 

Eliot, Rev. Dr., 278. 

Eliot, Samuel, 166, 345, 346. 

Eliot, Mrs. Samuel, 345. 

Eliot, William, 287, 345. 

Ellis, Joshua, 285. 

Ellis, Rowland, 285. 

Emerson, Cliarles, 384. 

Emerson, Edward W., quoted, 52. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 200, 214, 
363, 364, 365, 400, 402, 404; at 



Mr. Ripley's in Waltham, 15 
quoted l)y Lee in Tavern Club 
speecii, 46; friendship with Lee, 
52 ; quoted on laying of Memo- 
rial Hall corner-stone, 127 ; in- 
fluence in religious reform, 201 ; 
quoted, 134, 187, 207, 306, 319, 
386, 392. 

England, Lee's criticism on her con- 
duct in Civil War, 67-70 ; de- 
fended 1)}^ Mrs. Kemble, 70, 71 ; 
strictures upon, by Lee, in Lon- 
don " Spectator," 72. 

Essex County, Mass., 9, 35. 

Essex Street (Boston), 7. 

Evarts, William M., 131, 135, 136. 

Everett, Edward, 262, 289, 290,385. 

Everett, Otis, 7. 

Everett, William, candidate for 
Congress, 108; criticism of Rev. 
Dr. Hale's " Story of Massacliu- 
setts," 176. 

Exchange Coffee House, 270. 

" Exposition of Evidence," by H. 
Lee (senior), 114. 

"False Colours," 32. 

Faneuil, Beter, 264. 

Faneuil Hall, 81, 87, 88, 189 ; meet- 
ing at, to consider endorsement of 
purging of Louisiana legisla- 
ture, 96, 98 ; Democratic rally at, 
108. 

Faucit, Helen, 300. 

Federal Theatre, 352. 

Felton, Mrs. C. C, 23. 

Feltou, Samuel, 139. 

Fillebrown, musician, 87, 169. 

Fire Department. See Boston Vol- 
unteer Fire Department. 

Fitzgerald, Edward, 308. 

Florence, 51, 151. 

Floyd, John, of the Southern Con- 
federacy, 5, 229, 237. 

Flynt, Rev. Josiah, 4. 

FoUen, Charles, 25. 

FoUeu, Mrs. Charles, 25. 



432 



INDEX 



Forbes, John M., 1 7 ; aids in de- 
spatching troops, 61 ; devotiou 
to the State, 231 ; and the Shaw- 
Memorial, 291. 

Torlies, Robert B., Jr., in private 
theatricals, 24, 2.5, 26. 

Forbes, William H., 66. 

Forristall, militiaman, 289. 

Fort Independence, 230. 

Fort Sumter, 178. 

Fort Wagner, 65, 66, 243, 293, 333. 

Fort Warren, 230. 

Fort Winthrop, 229. 

Foster, Dwight, Attorney-General, 
7.'), 238. 

Foster, " Honest," 276. 

Fox, candidate for Congress, 110. ' 

Fox, Edward, 139. 

Fran9ais, The'atre, 40. 

Francis, Dr. Con vers, 15. 

" Francis I," Mrs. Kemble's, 316. 

Frankland, Sir Charles Henry 
("Harry"), 264, 279; his story, 
282-285. 

Frankland, Lady (Agnes Surriage), 
story of, 282-285. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 181, 274. 

Franklin County, Mass., 366. 

Franklin Park (Bo.ston), 189. 

Fredericksburg, battle of, 66. 

Free-Masons, 274. 

Free Soil party, 1 04 ; Lee's con- 
nection with, 53^ 109, 115; rise 
of, 54 ; standing of, 60. 

Free Trade, Lee's opinions on, 121. 

" Free Trade Convention of all tlie 
States," Gallatin's "Memorial" 
at, 114. 

Frothingham, Richard, historian, 
99. 

Furness, Dr., 316. 

" Further Records," Mrs. Kemble's, 
314. 

Gallatin, his " Memorial," at Free 

Trade Convention, 114. 
Gallop's Island, 79, 80. 



Gambrill, Charles A., 24. 

Gardiner, William H., 25, 212. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 99, 100. 

Gassett, 139. 

Gericke, Wilhelm, 45. 

Germany, 141. 

Gettysburg, b.attle of, 66, 68, 369. 

Gibson, Mrs. Cliarles. See Warren, 
Miss. 

Gilbert, John Gibbs, 43, 300 ; obitu- 
ary, 352-356. 

" Good for Nothing," 31. 

" Good Night's Rest," 29. 

Goodwin, Daniel, 4. 

Goodwin, Ozias, 27, 28, 30-32. 

Gordon, Gen. George H., 230. 

Gorham, A., 27, 28, 30. 

Gorman, Senator, 113. 

Grand Army Encampment, 369. 

Grant, Gen. Ulysses S., his admin- 
istration, 94, 97 ; Wendell Phil- 
lips' speech on, 100; Devens' 
speech on, 369. 

Gray, William, characterization of, 
166. 

Gray, William, Jr., Park Com- 
missioner, 194. 

Green Dragon Tavern, the, 274. 

Greene, Col. Charles G., editor of 
the (Boston) " Post," 57, 231, 232, 
258. 

Greenfield, Mass., 369. 

Greenhalge, Frederick T., Governor 
of Massaclmsetts, 109. 

Greenleaf, Gardner, 290. 

Greenongh, Thomas, 282. 

Greenwood, Rev. Francis, 206. 

Greville, Charles, 297, 319. 

Guild, Boston dentist, 290. 

Guild, Curtis, Jr., 110. 

Gymuase Theatre, 40. 

Hale, Rev. Edward Everett, 
his " Story of Ma.ssachusetts," 
59, 176, 178, 179, 215. 

Hale, Miss, 31. 

Hallara, Arthur, 308. 



INDEX 



433 



Hammond, Mrs. Samuel, 30, 31. 
Hancock, John, 181, 242, 273, 274. 
Hancock House, the, 88, 163, 182, 

264. 
Harrison, Benjamin, President, 116, 

117. 
" Harvard Book," Lee's article on 

University Hall in, 13, 144, 168, 

171. 
Harvard Club of New York, letter 

to, 126 ; speech to, 130-136. 
Harvard College, 4, 11, 23, 52, 65, 

137, 255, 369, 373, 376, 380, 405, 
410, 419; rebellions at, 12-15; 
Lee as chief marshal at, 122- 
124 ; Lee's contributions to, 124- 
126; building of Memorial Hall 
at, 126-130; Lee's speech on 
needs of, 131-136; Lee's speech 
at Commencement (1884), 136- 
140 ; Lee as Overseer of, 142-143. 

" Harvard Graduates' Magazine," 
Lee's presidency of, 143. 

Harvard Medical School, Lee's 
speech at opening, 147-150. 

" Harvard Memorial Biographies," 
165. 

Harvard Overseers, Lee's speech 
on, 131-136 ; Lee's service, 142. 

Harvard University, 117,165; Quin- 
quennial Catalogue, 132; offers 
LL.D. degree to Lee, 144-147,221. 

Harvard Washington Corps, 83, 

138, 168, 375, 384. 

Hayes, Rutherford B., President, 

101, 102, 366. 
Heath, 86. 

Heath, carriage-builder, 290. 
Heath Farm, 31.5, 317. 
Hedge, Rev. Frederick H., Lee's 

remarks at dinner given to, 199. 
Higginson, Rev. Francis, 4, 379, 

381. 
Higginson, Francis J., 12. 
Higginson, Francis L., 17, 65, 128. 
Higginson, George, 16, 17; obituary, 

348-351. 



28 



Higginson, Henry L., 17, 20, 65, 
128 ; his paper in memory of 
Henry Lee (" An American Gen- 
tleman"), 220-224. 

Higginson, James J., 65. 

Higginson, Joane, 379. 

Higginson, Rev. John, 379, 382, 383. 

Higginson, Stephen, 350, 379. 

Higginson, Thomas Weutworth, 
160; quoted, 129, 151, 157, 163, 
165, 216. 

Higginson, Waldo, 160; obituary, 
375-383. 

Higginson family, 9, 379-381. 

Hillard, George S., 67. 

Hinckley, 139. 

" History Made Readable," 176. 

Hoar, Ebenezer R., 108, 109, 166, 
238 ; Lee's memoir of, 399-406. 

Hoar, George F., 108 ; Lee's at- 
tacks on, 110-119; Lee's letter 
to, 113-118; his oration on Rufus 
Putnam, 118. 

Hoar, Joanna, 405. 

Hoar, Samuel, 114, 402. 

Hoar, Sherman, 112 ; candidate for 
Congress, 108; Lee's speech in- 
troducing, 109. 

Hobby, Ann, 281. 

Holmes, John, 380. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 160; 
Lee's address on, 389-393. 

Holmes, Mrs. O. W., 389, 390. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr., 
wounded, 65. 

Hoosac Tunnel Railroad, 91. 

Hopkinton, Mass., 283, 284. 

Horticultural Hall, 27-32. 

Howard, Charles, 26. 

Howe, Mrs. George D., 29. 

Howe, Sir William, 263. 

" Hunchback," 32, 297. 

Hunting, Colonel, 89. 

Hutchinson, Anne, 4, 53, 203, 
214. 

Hutchinson, Faith, 4. 

Hutchinson house, the, 277, 281. 



434 



INDEX 



Hutchinson, Thomas, Governor, 

264, 275, 277-278, 355. 
Hutchinson, William, 277, 
Hyde, Mr., 188, 189. 
Hyslop, Mr., 191. 

Inches, Henderson, 287. 

Independent Corps of Cadets, Lee 
a member of, 83 ; vote of thanks 
to Lee for services in Legislature, 
84 ; Jolin Hancock as Colonel of, 
242. See also Cadets, First Corps 

of- 
Independents, the. See Mugwumps. 
Indians, reception of, 290. 
International Medical Congress in 

Loudon, 149. 
Ipswich Farms Road, 35. 
Irving, Sir Henry, criticism of, 35 ; 

Lee's speech at dinner to, 36-38. 

Jackson, Andrew, at Harvard 

College Commencement, 146. 
Jackson, Charles, 7, 159, 219, 341, 

357, 389. 
Jackson, Edward, 22, 27, 28, 30, 389. 
Jackson family, 4, 8, 9, 53. 
Jackson, James, 362. 
Jackson, John Barnard Swett, 148. 
Jackson, Jonathan, 6, 371. 
Jackson, Mary, 6. 
Jackson, Patrick Tracy, 340 ; Lee's 

obituary of, 371-372. 
Jamaica Pond, 192. 
Jarnian, Fanny, 356. 
Jefferson, Joseph, Lee's opinion of, 

in part of Bob Acres, 38, 39. 
Jepson, 290. 

Jesus College, Cambridge, 379. 
Jewett, Sarah Orne, Lee's letter to, 

186-188. 
Joannes, Count. See Jones, George. 
Joliusou, William F., 353. 
Jones, George, 164. 

Kansas Immigrant Aid Com- 
pany, 119. 



Kansas Famine, 1 1 9. 

Kean, Charles, 37. 

Kemble, Adelaide, 302, 320. 

Kemble, Charles, 36, 299, 300, 302, 
320, 322, 323. 

Kemble, Gouverneur, 324. 

Kemble, Henry, 320. 

Kemble, John, 308, 318, 320. 

Kemble, Mrs. Frances Ann, 24, 25 ; 
her letter about her hat, 44 ; Lee's 
letter to, about the Civil War, 64- 
69 ; her reply to Lee, 69-71 ; Lee's 
article on, 171 ; Lee's memorial 
to, 295-326 ; her " Sonnets on the 
American War," 312-313. 

Kendal, Mrs., 40. 

Kendal, the actor, 47 ; letter from 
Lee to, 39-40. 

Kendall, Edward, 169. 

Kendall, James, 168, 169. 

Kilby, Christopher, 282. 

King's Chapel, 8 207, 283, 284, 346, 
389. 

Kirkland, John Thornton, Pres- 
ident of Harvard College, 138, 
139, 205, 206. 

Knowles, Sheridan, 300. 

Knox, Gen. Henry, 86. 

Knoxville, 68. 

Labranche, Draosin B., 12. 

Lafayette, 270. 

Lake family, 4. 

Lamb, Charles, 110, 392. 

Lancers, the militia company. See 

Boston Lancers. 
Larcom, John, 160. 
Lathrop, Dr., 275. 
Latin School. See Boston Latin 

School. 
"Lavater." See "Not a Bad 

Judge." 
Lawrence, Amos A., 129. 
Lawrence, Ma.ss., 16. 
Lawrence, II. Bigelow, 1 1 . 
licarned, Colonel, 89. 
Lee, Clara, 50, 51. 



INDEX 



435 



Lee, Eliot C, 50. 

Lee, Elizabeth P. (Mrs. F. C. Shat- 
tuck), 50. 

Lee family, remarks on, 9, 53, 77. 

Lee, Francis L., in private theatri- 
cals, 22-30 ; in Civil War, G4, 7G. 

Lee, George, 50. 

Lee, Henry, his ancestors, 4-6; 
birth, 6, 7; "Random Remi- 
niscences," 6-8 ; characterization 
of, 9 ; at Harvard, 10-15 ; in busi- 
ness, 15-20; in theatricals, 21- 
33 ; fondness for Shakespeare, 33 ; 
his home life, 33-35 ; as a phiy- 
goer, 35-44 ; speech at dinner to 
Irving, 36-38 ; opinion of Jeffer- 
son, 38, 39 ; letter to Mr. Kendal, 
39-40 ; obituary of William War- 
ren, 41-43; friendship for Mrs. 
Kemble, 43, 44 ; letter from V. 
y. Bowditch to, 45 ; speech at 
Tavern Club dinner, 45-49 ; 
marriage, 50 ; children, 50-52 ; 
political affiliations, 53 ; commis- 
sioned as colonel, 54-56 ; at the 
presentation of the muskets, 57- 
58 ; corrects Butler, 58-59 ; con- 
nection with Union Club, 60; 
work as Governor's aide, 61-63 ; 
letter to Mr.s. Kemble, 64-69; 
letter from Mrs. Kemble to, 69- 
71 ; letter to the Loudon " Spec- 
tator," 71-73 ; his letter-writing, 
73 ; loyalty to Andrew, 74-76 ; 
speech at Cadets' anniversary, 76; 
resignation as Governor's aide, 
77, 78 ; letters on return of regi- 
ments from war, 78-81 ; letter to 
Andrew, 81-82 ; paper on " Mi- 
litia Brigadiers : Banks' Statue," 
83 ; love of things military, 83- 
90 ; reminiscences of the Ancient 
and Honorable Artillery Com- 
pany, 84-89 ; monograph on " The 
Militia of the United States," 90 ; 
in the State Legislature, 91 ; in- 
terest in public affairs, 91-121 ; 



opinion of McClellan, 93-94; 
hostility to Butler, 95 ; opinion 
of Wendell Phillips, 9G-101 ; his 
politics. 101-121; letter to the 
"Boston Advertiser"in Cleveland- 
Blaine campaign, 106; attacks 
on Senator Hoar, 110-119; aa 
chief marshal at Harvard Com- 
mencements, 122-124; money 
contributions to Harvard, 124- 
126; part in the building of 
Memorial Hall, 127-130 ; at i)res- 
entation of Gen. Bartk-tt's bust, 
130 ; S{)eech to Harvard Club of 
New York, 130-136 ; speech at 
Harvard Commencement, 1884, 
136-140 ; letter to the " Nation " 
as to Harvard graduates in busi- 
ness, 141 ; as Harvard Overseer, 
142-143; president of " Harvard 
Graduates' Magazine," 143 ; 
article on University Hall in 
"Harvard Book," 144, 171 ; un- 
delivered speech on offer of hon- 
orary Harvard degree, 145-147; 
speech at opening of new build- 
ings of Harvard Medical School, 
147-150; love of Boston, 151- 
1 53 ; high place in the com- 
munity, 154-157; benefactions, 
158-160; his conversation, 160- 
165; descriptive faculty, 165- 
170; as a writer, 170-171 ; letter 
to the " Boston Transcript," on 
Labor Day, 171-174; his obitu- 
aries, 175-176; paper in the 
" Nation " on Hale's " Story of 
Massachusetts," 59, 176-179; 
interest in preservation of Old 
South Church, 180-186; letter 
to Miss Jewett, 186-188 ; estates 
in Brooklineand Beverly Farms, 
190-193; Park Commissioner, 
193-195; dislike of boulevards 
and electric roads, 19.5-197 ; atti- 
tude towards religion, 198-211 ; 
remarks at dinner to Dr. Hedge, 



436 



INDEX 



1 



199; address on "The Ministry 
as viewed by a Layman," 200- 
202 ; paper ou " Why we go to 
Church," 203-211 ; love of music, 
211-213; fancy for domestic 
architecture, 213 ; literary tastes, 
214-215; personal appearance, 
215-216; personal traits, 216- 
218 ; opposed to war with Spain^ 
218; death, 219. 

Lee, Henry, Jr., 52. 

Lee, Henry, St., 5-6, 77, 114, 220. 

Lee, Higginson & Co., 16, 219. 

Lee, John C, 16. 

Lee, Joseph (born 1782), 5. 

Lee, Joseph (son of Henry Lee), 50. 

Lee, Judge Joseph, 147. 

Lee, Mary, 6, 77, 159. 

Lee, Mrs. Eliza Buckminster, 77. 

Lee, Mrs. Henry, 22 ; her marriage, 
50; her children, 50-52 ; remark 
as to scene at presentation of 
muskets, 58; note to, 61; her 
health, 78. 

" Lee's Vaults." See Union Safe 
Deposit Vaults. 

Lee, Thomas (born 1702), 4-5, 355. 

Lee, Thomas (uncle of Henry Lee), 
estate in Brookline, 192; in 
Music Hall dispute, 200. 

Leverett, master of Boston Latin 
School, 136. 

Lewis, Winslow, estate, 277. 

Lexington, presentation of mus- 
kets from battle of, 57. 

Libby Prison, 65. 

" Life and Times of John Win- 
throp," 387. 

Light Horse, the, 289. 

Liglit Infantry. See Boston Light 
Infuntry. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 271 ; desire to 
carry out will of nation, 68 ; part 
in clash between Andrew and 
Butler, 74-76 ; characterization 
of Andrew, 255 ; his raising of 
negro regiments, 293. 



Lincoln, Levi, Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, 86, 87. 

Lisbon earthquake, 283. 

Little, William, 278. 

" Lives of the Lords Chancellors " 
(Campbell's), 174. 

Lodge, Henry Cabot, 119, 157. 

Lodge, Mrs. James, 28, 29, 30. 

Logan, William H., the Boston 
waiter, 175 ; obituary, 338. 

London, 26, 51, 52, 153. 

Long, John D., Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, 111, 163, 268, 269, 
293. 

Loring, George B., 105. 

Lome, Marquis of, 282. 

Louise, Princess, 282. 

Louisiana, 96. 

Lovering, Charles, 27. 

Lowell, Charles Russell (the elder), 
111, 289. 

Lowell, Charles Russell (the 
younger), 65, 66, 238. 

Lowell, Francis Cabot, obituary, 
340-343. 

Lowell Institute, 341. 

Lowell, James Jackson, 65. 

Lowell, James Russell, 392 ; Com- 
memoration Ode, 123 ; at Har- 
vard University 250th anniver- 
sary, 124. 

Lowell, John, founder of Lowell 
Institute, 341. 

Lowell, John, Judge of the U. S. 
Circuit Court, in private thea- 
tricals, 25 ; characterization of, 
167. 

Lowell, Mass., 16. 

Lowell, Mrs. E. J., 31. 

Lowell Railroad, the, 376. 

Lowell, Rev. Dr., 206. 

Loyal Legion, 82. 

Lyman, Mrs. Theodore, 25, 26, 32. 

Lyman, Theodore, in private the- 
atricals, 25, 26, 32 ; in Civil War, 
66; characterization of, 167; 
obituary, 410-412. 



INDEX 



437 



Macready, the actor, 296, 307, 308. 
Malaprop, Mrs., played by Mrs. 

Kemble, 24 ; by Mrs. Torrey, 25. 
Malkins, the, 308. 
Malvern Hill, battle of, 65. 
Mann, member of Brigade Band, 

168. 
Mansfield, Richard, 36. 
Marblehead, Mass., 282, 283. 
Martineau, Miss Harriet, 319. 
Massachusetts, 54, 56, 59, 61, 70, 90, 

94, 95, 102, 248-249, 271, 366. 
Massachusetts Historical Society, 

387, 389, 399. 
Massachusetts Infants' Asylum, 

27. 
"Massachusetts Soldiers' Fund," 

235. 
Mather, Cotton, 281, 383. 
Mather, Rev. Samuel, 275. 
Mathers, the, 274. 
Mathews, Charles, 25. 
Matthews, Nathan, 189. 
Maurice, Frederick, 308. 
McCIellan, General George B., 

Lee's opinion of, 93-94. 
M'Clester, John and Sally, 285. 
McGregor, Miss Fanny, 26. 
Meade, General George H., 67. 
"Med Facs," society of, at Har- 
vard, 138, 211. 
Mellowes, Martha, 4. 
"Memorial" by Gallatin, at Free 

Trade Convention, 114. 
" Memorial " by Judge Lemuel 

Shaw, on Free Trade, 114. 
Memorial Hall, 134, 196, 376, 405, 

410 ; Lee's part in the building 

of, 127-130. 
"Memorial History of Boston," 

quoted, 90. 
Mercantile Library Association, 

169. 

"MilitiaBrigadiersiBanks'Statue," 

Lee's paper on, 83. 
"Militia of the United States," 

Lee's monograph on, 90. 



Miller, General, 8. 

Mills, Charles J., obituary, 329-330. 

Milnes, Richard Monckton, 308. 

"Ministry as Viewed by a Lay- 
man," Lee's address on, 200-202. 

Minot, William, characterization 
of, 166; obituary, 394-396. 

" Modern Warfare," 29. 

Mohawks, the, 181. 

Molineux, of the Boston " Tea 
Party," 274. 

Monroe, James, President, 270. 

Montgomery Guards, 288. 

Morris Island, 68. 

Morris, William, 272. 

Morse, Benjamin Eddy, obituary, 
397-398. 

Motley, Thomas, Jr., 27. 

Mugwumps, 103-109. 

Murdoch, the actor, 356. 

Museum. See Boston Museum. 

Museum of Fine Arts. See Boston 
Museum of Fine Arts. 

Music Hall, letting to Theodore 
Parker's congregation, 119, 200. 

Mystic River, 265. 

" Nation," the, 115, 120, 135 ; Lee's 
review of " Story of Massachu- 
setts," 59, 176-179; Lee's letter 
about college graduates in busi- 
ness printed in, 141. 

National Lancers, the, 289, 290. 

" Nervous Set," 30. 

New Berne, 76, 193. 

Newburyport, Mass., 8. 

New England, 16, 54, 67, 70, 312. 

New England Guards, 170, 212, 
288. 

"New England Magazine," 186. 

" New Monthly Magazine," 298. 

New North Church, 274, 276. 

Newport, 76. 

New York, 18. 

New York Hotel, 260. 

Niebuhr, of the Brigade Band, 169 

North Beverly, Mass., 35. 



438 



INDEX 



North Carolina, 68. 

North, Christopher, 297. 

North Eud (of Boston), 264, 355, 

356 ; Lee's paper on, 273-286, 

355, 356. 
North Eud Grammar School, 277. 
North Square, 275. 
Norton, Charles Eliot, 46, 130, 364. 
" Not a Bad Judge," 25. 

"Old North" Church, 274, 275, 
355. 

Old South Church, Lee's interest in 
preservation of, 180-186, 196. 

Old State House, 181, 183, 196. 

Olmsted, Frederick Law, the land- 
scape gardener, 195-197. 

O'Neil, Miss, the actress, 297. 

" Original Olympic " Theatre, 26. 

Orne, Lois, 5. 

Otis, Harrison Gray, 289. 

Otis, James, 183, 274. 

Otis, William F., 212. 

Paine, Henry W., 99. 

Paine, Sumner, 66. 

Palmerston, Lord, 67. 

Parker, Francis E., 132, 133; char- 
acterization of, 167. 

Parker, Theodore, 57 ; and the 
Music Hall, 119,200. 

Parkman, Francis, characterization 
of, 167. 

Parkman, Samuel, 139. 

Parkman, Mrs. Samuel, 34, 160. 

Partou, James, 230. 

Payne, Daniel C, 32. 

Peabody, Rev. Andrew P., 133. 

Pearson, Life of John A. Andrew 
cited, 61, 76. 

Pecker, Daniel, 355. 

Peel, Sir Robert, 68. 

Pemberton Hill, 264. 

Pendleton, Isaac P., 11. 

" Perfection," 23. 

Perkins, Edward N., 24. 

Perkins, Stephen, 66. 



Perkins, Thomas Handasyd, 22,23, 

50, 151,414. 
Perkins, William, Lee's speech on 

death of, 420-424. 
Phi Beta Kappa Society, Lee 

elected to, 142. 
Philadelphia, 18. 
Phillips, Wendell, 154, 374; Lee's 

opinion of, 96-101. 
Phipps, Sir William, 264, 273. 
Pickering, Henry G., 30. 
Pickering family, 4. 
Pierce, musician, 169. 
Pierce, Augustus, 12. 
Pierson, Mrs. Charles, 32. 
Pillsbury, Albert E., 110. 

I'inckney, , 10. 

Pitcairn, Major, 275. 

Pittsfield, ]\Iass., 140. 

Planche, James R.,the dramatist,25. 

Plymouth Rock, 268-269. 

Port Hudson, 66, 68. 

Porter, General, 8. 

" Post." See " Boston Post." 

" Poudre aux Yeux," 32. 

Price, Rev. Roger, 283. 

Provident Institution for Savings, 

18, 420, 421, 422. 
Province House, 182, 263, 264, 277. 
Public Garden at Boston, treat- 
ment of, 194. 
Putnam, Rufus, George F. Hoar's 

oration on, 118. 

QoiNCT, Dorothy, 389. 

Quincy, Edmund, characterization 

of, 166. 
Quincy, Josiah, 11, 12, 288. 
Quincy, .Josiah, Jr., 87. 
Quincy, Josiah, 3d, 108. 
Quincy, Samuel M., 30, 31. 
Quincy family, 4. 

Rachel (Elizabeth Rachel Fe- 
lix), the actress, 301. 

"Random Reminiscences of an 
Octogenarian," 6-8. 



INDEX 



439 



Readville, Mass., 80. 

" Kebelliad," the, 12. 

Reed, Colouel John H., 2.52. 

Kepublicaii party, 53, 54, 94, 101, 
106, 107, 109. 

" Revenge Church," the, 275, 276. 

Revere, Paul, 66, 274, 275. 

Rice, Alex. H., Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, 262, 263. 

Richardson, tlie old armorer, 87. 

Riciiardson, William A., character- 
ization of, 167. 

Rifle Rangers, the, 168, 288. 

Rio de Janeiro, 15. 

Ripley, Rev. Ezra, 400, 402. 

Ripley, Samuel, 15. 

Ripley, Sarah Alden (Mrs. Sam- 
uel), Lee's obituary on, 335-337, 
402. 

Ritchie, Harrison, 55, 61, 230, 239, 
252, 255. 

Ritchie, Mrs. Harrison, 24. 

" Rivals," acted by the amateurs, 
23 ; read by Col. Lee, 33 ; Joseph 
Jefferson in, criticised by Lee, 
38. 

Rodman, Samuel, 139. 

Romillys, the, 308. 

Russell, Cabot Jackson, 65. 

Russell, Mis.-*, 27, 28. 

Russell, Miss Emily, 32. 

Russell, William G., characteriza- 
tion of, 167. 

Rutledge, Thomas Pinckney, 1 1 . 

" Safety Vault-s," constraction 

of, by Lee, 18-20. 
St. Gandens, Augustus, sculptor of 

Shaw Memorial, 294. 
St. Legcr, Miss, 316. 319, 321. 
St. Paul's Church (Boston), 48, 87. 
St. Paul's School, 373. 
Salem, Mas.s., 4, 5, 59, 232. 
Salem Liglit Infantry, 59, 232. 
Saltonstall, Leverett, 116. 
Salvini, the elder. Tavern Club's 

dinner in honor of, 45. 



Sanitary Commission in Boston, 65, 

390. 
Sargent, Charles S., 192. 
Sargent, Horace Binney, 55, 230. 
Sargent, Joseph, 139. 
Sargent, Peter, 263. 
Savage, Thomas, 4, 85, 181. 
" School for Scandal," 33, 38. 
Scott, Sir Walter, 151, 214, 297. 
Scott, General Winfield, 177, 178, 

229, 230. 
Sedgwicks, the, 311, 321. 
Sever, 138-139. 

Sewall, Judge Samuel, 89, 181, 208. 
Seward, William H., 237. 
Seymour, Horatio, Governor of 

New York, interview with Gov- 
ernor Andrew, 237. 
Shakespeare, Lee's familiarity with 

his plays, 33, 214. 
Shattuck, Frederick C, 219. 
Shattuck, Mrs. Frederick C, 50. 
Shattuck, George Cheyne, obituary, 

373-374. 
Shaw, G. Rowland, obituary, 333- 

334. 
Shaw, Chief Justice Lemuel, his 

Free Trade "Memorial," 114. 
Shaw, Colonel Robert G., 65 ; death 

at Fort Wagner, 69 ; presentation 

of the bas-relief in memory of, 

291-294. 
" Shaw Memorial," Lee's address at 

unveiling of. 291-294. 
" She Stoops to Conquer," 27. 
Sheridan, General Philip H., 96. 
Sherman, Roger, 114, 131. 
Ship Island, 246. 
Ship Tavern, 273. 
Shortle, Mr., 400, 401. 
Siddons, Cecilia. See Combe, ^frs. 

Geonje. 
Siddons, Mrs., 36, 295, 297, 301, 302. 
Siddons, Mrs. Harry, 316. 
Simmons, Collector of the Port of 

Boston, 98, 103, 105. 
" Smiles and Tears," 31. 



440 



INDEX 



Sohier, Miss E. P., and the Old 

South Church, 180. 
Sohiiers' Monument, the, 369. 
Somerset Club, 60. 
" Sonnets on the American War," 

by Mrs. Kemble, 312-313. 
South Carolina, 5, 366, 368. 
South End (of Boston), 265. 
Spanish War, Lee opposed to, 218. 
" Spectator," letter from Lee to, 

71-73. 
" Splendid Investment," 25. 
Stanley, musician, 170. 
Stanton, Edwin M., 177, 250, 

251. 
State House (Mass.), the present, 

182, 185; speech on, 262-272. 

See also Old Stale House. 
Steedman, Miss, 28, 30. 
Sterling, John, 297, 307, 308. 
Stevens, Thaddeus, 83. 
Stevenson, General Thomas G., 

330; obituary, 331-332. 
Storrow family, 379. 
" Story of Massachusetts," Hale's, 

reviewed and corrected, 59, 176- 

179,215. 
Stuart, Gilbert, 7. 
Sturgis, Russell, " Quick-step," 212, 

213. 
Sullivan, General John, 76. 
Sumner, Adjutant-General, 87. 
Sumner, Siieriff, 87. 
Surriage, Agues. See Franldand, 

Lady. 
Surriage, Isaac, 285. 
Symmes, Rev. Mr., 4. 

Tavern Club, 36, 44, 45, 219; 

Lee's speech at, 45-49. 
" Tea Party," the Boston, 274. 
Tennessee, 68. 
Tennyson, Alfred, 308. 
Terry, Ellen, 35, 36, 3o. 
Thacher, Rev. Peter, 276. 
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 

300, 308. 



Thayer, Adin, political attack upon, 

104-106, 113. 
Thayer, General, 230. 
Thomas, William. 136. 
Tickuor, Mrs. George, obituary, 

345-347. 
"Times," the, 70. 
Torrey, Mrs. Charles, as Mrs. Mal- 

aprop, 25. 
Torrey, Miss Mary, 25. 
Toucey, Isaac, 229. 
Tracy, family, 4. 
" Transcript." See " Boston Daily 

Evening Transcript." 
Tree, Ellen, 356. 
Tremont House (Boston hotel), 8, 

113, 298,321, 357. 
Tremont Theatre (Boston), 164, 

169, 298, 352, 353, 356. 
Trench, Richard, 308. 
Troy and Greenfield Railroad^ 

91. 
" Turnout," the, 22. 
" Twenty Minutes with a Tiger," 

John Gilbert in, 353. 
Twiggs, General David E., 

229. 
" Two Palaverers," the, 273. 
Tyler, Colonel, 87. 
Tyng family, 4. 

"Union Building" (Boston), 19. 

Union Club, Lee's connection with, 
60. 

" Union Safe Deposit Vaults," built, 
18-20; incorporation of, blocked 
by Governor Butler, 95. 

University Hall, 13, 14; Lee's arti- 
cle in " Harvard Book " on, 144, 
168. 

" Value of Sentiment," Lee's 
speech thus entitled, 262-272. 
Vane, Sir Harry, 264. 
Varieties Theatre, 22, 26. 
Vicksburg, siege of, 66, 68, 
Virginia, 76. 



INDEX 



441 



"Wagner, Richard, the music com- 
poser, Lee's dislike of, 212. 

Walker, Geueral Francis A., 111. 

Walker, James, D.D., 206. 

Wallack's Theatre, 3.')2, 354. 

Waltliam, Mass., 15, 83. 

Waiiamaker, John, 117. 

Ware, Charles E., 380. 

Ware, William R., 24, 26. 

Warrea, musician, 169. 

Warreu, Joseph, 181, 274. 

Warren, Jliss., 30, 33. 

Warreu, William, Lee's friendship 
witli, 40; ohituary, 41-43; as 
Sir I'eter Teazle, 354. 

Washington, George, 367. 

Washington, North Carolina, 64. 

" Waterman," the play, 23. 

Wayne, Henry, 139. 

Webster, Daniel, 11,49, 114,274. 

Webster, Daniel (servant), 8. 

West, Nat, 138. 

West End Street Railway Com- 
pany, effort to use Boston Com- 
mon, opposed by Lee, 188-189. 

Westminister Abbey, 267-268. 

Wetherbce, Samuel, musician, 168. 

Wetherell, Colonel, 239, 252. 

Wiieelwright, Charles, 139. 

Wheelwright, Rev. John, Puritan 
divine of New England, 203. 

Whig party, 54, 115. 



Whitcher, Martin L., obituary, 344. 

White, Azel, 169. 

White, Joseph, 355. 

White, Mr., 7. 

Whitman, Mrs. Henry, 160. 

Whitwell, William S., 24, 25, 26. 

" Why we go to Church," Lee's 
paper so entitled, 203-211. 

Wickliffe, Robert, 138. 

Wilby, General, and Louisiana leg- 
islature, 98. 

Wilde, Mrs., George C, 24, 25. 

Wilder, Marshall P., Lee's letter to, 
190-192. 

Wiiliam.s, H., 31. 

Williams College, 255. 

Wilson, Senator Henry, 113, 233, 
246. 

Winsley, John, 281. 

Winthrop, John, 148, 171, 181, 183, 
184,263,348,386. 

Winthrop, Lieutenant-Governor, 
87. 

Winthrop, Robert C, 67, 262 ; ob- 
ituary 384-388, 399. 

Wool, General John E., 238. 

Worcester Catholic College, 255. 

Wyman (Jeffries or Morrill ?), 11, 

Wymau, Oliver, theatrical man- 
ager, 352. 

Young, Charles, 307. 
Young, Julian, 307. 






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